Interview
In this NCHS Conversation, humanitarian aid worker Sally Becker discusses contemporary challenges in humanitarian response, as well as how technology can assist in the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
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Data play an increasingly important role in response efforts. This blog examines data and definitions, and expectations and standards – and why they matter for more effective humanitarian response.
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This blog discusses ‘screening’ as an activity conducted by larger international NGOs that receive funding from governmental donors with conditional clauses to prevent financing terrorism.
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This blog examines the security implications for Afghans who have had their biometrics registered by humanitarian or military agencies.
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This blog explores the challenges associated with the use of biometrics for the delivery of humanitarian aid in Yemen, including privacy and data protection considerations.
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This blog examines how digital technologies interact with refugee law and refugee protection, and presents a case for digital refugee lawyering.
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This blog examines how a tech-reliant humanitarian sector increasingly finds itself implicated in a global war on data.
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How can the digitisation of the human rights field re-shape ideas about death and the practices of care and control of the dead in the international space.
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In the aid sector, the onset of ‘digital humanitarianism’ has produced a significant amount of hype with frequent promises that the latest digital device or platform will be a ‘game changer’.
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Reflections on some of the new directions in humanitarian governance and the ambiguity of some of the principal techniques.
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Children are becoming the objects of a multitude of monitoring devices—what are the possible negative ramifications in low resource contexts and fragile settings?
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Over the summer, the World Food Programme (WFP) — the world’s largest humanitarian organisation — got into a pitched standoff with Yemen’s Houthi government over, on the surface, data governance. That standoff stopped food aid to 850,000 people for more than two months during the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
We welcome blog contributions from across the humanitarian field, whether you are a researcher, academic, practitioner or postgraduate student.
For example, you may be a researcher wishing to link your studies to current affairs or events, or you may be a research student wanting to share some preliminary research findings. We also welcome contributions from practitioners working in the field wishing to share experiences or reflections on humanitarian issues or practices.
Please use the form above to submit your blog. It is useful if you also tell us how your blog contributes to the analysis or discussion about a particular humanitarian topic or issue.
All submissions should be made electronically and in Microsoft Word (not PDF or any other format). Blog posts should ideally be between 800 and 1,500 words in length. Please do not submit blogs more than 2,000 words.
Please include the names and a short bio for each author (no more than two to three sentences per author). If you use social media, you can also include your Twitter and/or Facebook handles. Also include a title for the blog, as well as an abstract or summary (maximum 100 words).
It is also useful if you include a suitable accompanying photo or image for your blog. Please also provide a caption where possible and ensure you cite the source and have permission to use it.
Blogs are best when they are easily understood by a wide audience. Please write in an accessible way that will be easily understood. Adding hyperlinks to relevant sources and background information is also a useful way to provide the reader with more information or provide further explanation of complex concepts. Add a short list of references at the end of your blog if necessary.
Please let us know if your blog has been published elsewhere. We can in some cases consider posting pieces that have previously been published, however, the author then needs to obtain permission from the original publisher to re-publish the work.
As a contributor, you are responsible for the factual accuracy of your work. You are also responsible for correctly citing other sources. Responsibility for any plagiarism rests with the author.
Please be aware that all blogs submitted for publication undergo an independent and anonymous review process. The reviewer may make suggestions to revise your blog prior to publication.
While this blog is hosted by the NCHS, the views expressed by individual authors are their own and must not be interpreted as the position of the NCHS.