New and Emerging Forms of Violence Data for Crisis Response: A Comparative Analysis in Kenya

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The project will produce the first robust evidence base on the opportunities and limitations of social media data on violence reporting to inform UK emergency and crisis response. These responses include targeted humanitarian support to vulnerable and conflict-affected populations, development of rapid conflict and risk assessments to inform policy and strategic action, and support to political and other reconciliation efforts in the medium-term (DfID, 2009, 2010). Effective UK Government crisis and emergency response increasingly depends on the availability of timely, reliable data on political violence, to determine the scale and dimensions of crises and tailor responses (UKAid, 2013). While social media reports of violence can inform the design, targeting, and geography of crisis response, there is limited robust research on their reliability and comprehensiveness.Research highlights significant 'technology gaps' between members at margins of society, and those whose voices are amplified by social media (Perera, 2015); reflecting concerns that social media does not equally reflect experiences of the most vulnerable, including women and girls, or populations with limited digital access, who are often key crisis response targets. Conventional media also reproduce certain biases in selection and coverage (Wigmore-Shepherd, 2015). Nevertheless, little research has rigorously tested the nature or extent of data gaps, meaning policymakers develop responses without robust evidence on data reliability and comprehensiveness.This project addresses this gap, by testing reliability and comprehensiveness of social media data, against conventional media reporting of violence in a real-time context: the August 2017 Kenyan elections. It will identify opportunities new data provide for policy, and what limitations restrict usability, along three dimensions: 1) reporting timeliness; 2) targeting of crisis response; 3) geographies of violence risk. Building on extensive social media use in Kenya, and a history of violence reporting via social media (Meier, 2008) the case facilitates a test of social media data in a promising context.Two sources of political violence data will be comparatively mapped and analysed: 1) reports from the Uwiano social media and crowdsourced digital platform in Kenya; 2) reports coded from published media sources by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Dataset (ACLED). Data will be collected for six months (four months prior to, and two months following, elections). Findings will be discussed, validated and ground-truthed in workshops in Nairobi with policy, research, and civil society experts on Kenyan political violence, to assess comprehensiveness of both data sources and implications for response.Research impact and uptake will be ensured through the central role of the Department for International Development (DfID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) staff, as non-academic members of the project team. This will ensure maximal policy relevance through data use and analysis in accordance with UK Government priorities; support research uptake and impact through targeted integration of evidence into specific UK Government analytic, policy and planning instruments; and facilitate performance assessments of complementary UK Government programming. The project will ensure impact and value for money through creation of a robust evidence base on use of new and emerging data; and systematic mapping of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of discrete data in a real-world comparison.To our knowledge, the proposed study represents the first attempt to rigorously and systematically map these opportunities and limitations in comparative context, and thus provide a robust evidence base for learning and deployment around digital violence monitoring platforms.