If you’re working within the humanitarian system, the following responses to questions frequently asked of social scientists during emergencies can be helpful to foster an understanding and appreciation of the rationale for social scientists’ work:
Question: “I only have limited funds that I can direct towards evidence-generating activities. How can I justify the additional expense required for doing research?”
Answer: It is true that emergency response operations face severe funding shortages, especially now there are soaring numbers of people in need. Factors such as expanding conflict zones, declining democracies, climate change and associated severe weather events, the impacts of COVID-19, migration, and food insecurity mean more people are in need and for longer periods of time. This is precisely why holistic social science is crucial – it offers a ‘whole of system’ approach to understanding and addressing the root causes of these interconnected crises.
Social science insights can inform emergency response pillars and bring focus to cross-cutting issues concerning affected populations. Further, producing rapid and actionable social science insights does not have to be expensive. By hiring a dedicated expert to collaborate across agencies and pillars (e.g., using interagency resources) and by maintaining a small logistical budget, insights can be gathered efficiently where they are needed most. The Collective Service has produced a job description for this role that may be useful as a starting point. An associated coordination mechanism questionnaire can aid in mapping technical needs at the country level for operational social science support.
Q. “I don’t have any social scientists here who understand how to work during an emergency response. And the local actors here, who have the right access to reach vulnerable populations, are not trained in this type of data collection. How am I supposed to find someone to do this?”
A. People working for national academic and research institutions can be trained to understand the humanitarian system and the requirement of data to meet the immediate needs of populations in crises. Staff at local nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) or community-based organisations (CBOs) can be trained to collect social science data.
Another SSHAP blog on cross-border learning in humanitarian action makes a strong case for investing in this type of training. There is potential to explore coordinating mechanisms that bring these two groups together into small and agile assessment teams to take advantage of the pooled skillsets and technical capacities of both local researchers and local organisations. The Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab has adapted tools such as Rapid Assessment Procedure sheets to facilitate rapid qualitative team-based work.
Social scientists will need to commit to shifting from a research-only mindset to one which draws on their methodological skills in data collection and analysis for operational purposes. In turn, community engagement experts, who are typically employed by local NGOs and CBOs, will need to be given the time and space required for supporting evidence-generating activities. There are open-source social science training modules and key lessons learned from their piloting, which can serve as a roadmap for how to do this.
SSHAP is well-placed to support social scientists and practitioners. This can be through the fellowship scheme, by delivering bespoke training through social science in action workshops and webinars, by developing tools and resources, and by providing evidence on demand, including briefs and roundtables.
Advice for emerging social scientists
Funders and donors
Responses to questions from funders and donors require particular care.
Resource mobilisation – before a crisis happens – is required to invest in long-term positions and in the expertise of local humanitarian actors to value, collect, analyse and utilise social science insights. This requires coordination across emergency response actors for:
- Securing regular funding (for preparedness activities).
- Providing rapid funding (for rapid data to support emergency response).
- Investing systemically, beyond individual projects and ‘of-the-moment’ crisis situations.
Funding is required for the interagency, interdisciplinary long-term commitments required to ensure trained social scientists are well integrated within the humanitarian system. Poor data and ineffectively coordinated humanitarian partner platforms lead to inefficient use of resources, duplication of activities, survey fatigue and implementation of interventions without impact (or with unintended consequences). Ultimately, they result in failure to achieve the core principles of humanitarian aid. Appropriate mobilisation of resources is needed to establish and maintain organisational ‘evidence ecosystems’ and structures dedicated to people-centred, coordinated and standardised evidence-generating activities.
Responses such as those above can help you to:
- Highlight the unique insights that social science evidence gives about the needs and concerns of affected communities.
- Advocate for the inclusion of social scientists in emergency planning, ideally before a crisis begins.
- Challenge the myth that social science research is too slow or that it is not representative in an emergency setting.
Dr Ginger A. Johnson is a medical anthropologist with over 15 years of experience working within the UN system and with international humanitarian organisations. She co-founded the Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab, co-developed the Collective Service’s Social Science for Emergency Preparedness and Response training package, and has recently co-facilitated Rapid Qualitative Assessment courses conducted on behalf of UN/INGOs in the East and Southern Africa for the Collective Service and SSHAP. You can listen to her recent podcast focusing on unpacking qualitative research in emergency response recorded by the Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre at King’s College London.
- Do you have any additional tips to share based on your work and experience? Do you need support in undertaking rapid social science in emergencies? If so, please reach out to Annie Lowden (a.lowden[@]ids.ac.uk) or Juliet Bedford (julietbedford[@]anthrologica.com).
