By Nick van Praag | Ground Truth Solutions / Director
Things are moving forward with our program to include the perceptions of citizens and frontline workers in the recovery effort in Nepal. A lot of effort has gone into formulating the questions. The goal is to learn much from just a few questions. So what we ask is crucial. For instance: ‘Are your main problems being addressed?’, ’Do you have the information you need to get relief and support?’ or ‘Overall, is the post-earthquake relief effort making progress?'.
We will begin collecting the data later this week. Thanks to our partnership with Accountability Labs and the Local Interventions Group, we have volunteers ready to start work in 10 of the most seriously affected districts. They will go house to house using a rigorous approach to sampling that we hope will capture well what people think. In 4 other districts, data collection will be done by the Nepali scouts. Baden Powell would have been proud!
Simultaneously, volunteers will be calling frontline workers by phone. Save the Children, Care, the Red Cross and World Vision are already signed up. More agencies will come on board in the coming weeks. With the frontline workers, one of the challenges is working out the best time to call them. They are out in the field most of the time and often far from network coverage.
Once we have the data, which we will collect every fortnight, we will analyze it and quickly provide the insight to the government and many agencies working on the recovery.
It is an ambitious project, but with our local partners we are confident it will make a significant impact on the way Nepal gets back on its feet - putting citizens' voices front and centre in the recovery effort.
We will let you know what the feedback tells us, how it is used by those in charge, and what difference it makes. It is rare to have the voices of ordinary people influence humanitarian work - or development work for that matter. Our hope is that this project will help not just the people of Nepal to have their voices heard, but will encourage people-centered ways of working right across the humanitarian system.
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By Eva Erlach | Program Analyst
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