Why?

• It is a civil right to be counted

• What gets measured gets done

• You don’t count if you are not counted

• The poor are never registered (counted)

Northern district

• No community based mortality figures

• No community based socio-economic data

• No real-time data on changes in sense of security, reasons for moving closer or returning home

DSS• Extended community ”Civil register” based on repeated household

interviews• Tool to keep track of and describe a well defined population (demography)

• Measures changes over time: ”Transformation in human security”

• Census, family structure• Repeated household visits• Births, deaths and migration• Socio-economic status (land, assets, education, employment, religion, IDP

status etc)• Simple health indicators, incl. Circumstances of birth, death• Circumstances and patterns of moving, migration (why, when, how, with

whom)• Via an ID number basic information can be linked to any other data

collected (moving, birth, death, socio-economic, agriculture, wealth, educ.)

Basics of DSS

• Scientific questions that require baseline and/or follow-up information

• Researchers define what is monitored based on research question

• Any particular research creates specific questionnaires and related databases that are then linked to the basic demographic data

• Always keep the key functions running:– births, deaths, migration, simple background information

• 35 sites organised in a network: INDEPTH (indepth-network.org)

• Sites have uniform methodology = share data, cross site comparisons possible

Basic methods and outcome• Identify specific population groups or individuals for interview• Birth cohorts• Intervention studies• Long term follow-up

– ”what happened to xx and yy that came out of the bush in 2008”– ”What happened to the children of xx and yy”– What is the current socio-economic status of people from xx camp that

experienced heavy rain in 2006– What is the prevalence of gender based violence among wives of men

who ….. – Anemia, hospitalisation or malnutrition among abducted children

• Training site for community work and contact

Population and community

• Trust, confidence, help, advocate community problems to authorities

• More reliable information• Access to more ”delicate” information

– Violence, sexual behaviour, unofficial incomes, favouritism, invisible powerstructures, bribery, abuse

• Makes way for projects with delicate questions

Public health

• Extraction of teeth, teehing diarrhoea• Lemon and cholera• Food aid in a crisis• Evaluate existing health interventions (ante-natal care,

immunizations, bednets, malaria treatment)• Emerging or threatening crop failures (Tanzania),

famines, diseases among domestic animals, human epidemics or other public health threats

• System always in place even in unexpected events

Public health

• Picks up overlooked health problems, invisible vulnerable groups

• Monitor fertility• STIs, HIV• Risk factors• Behaviour change over time• Prospective study: Food insecurity/prices and sexual

”risk behaviour” of mothers

• Document if and why changes in health drives development/higher sense of security (or opposite….)

Effects of a chronic crisis during and after outbreak of peace

• Immediate • Short term• Long term• Dynamics over time• Vacuum….• What happens to abducted children when they grow older:

– How do they behave, see themselves,form society, worklife and family

• Identification of (still) abducted persons or persons who are still missing/disappeared – whereabouts, circumstances of eventual return

• Prepared for reversal of situation

Management

• Feed planners with up to date information• Morbidity• Mortality (causes of death by camp, village etc)• Migration/return situation• Patterns of moving (changes in patterns…)• Land issues• Special information needs from specific

institutions• Quaterly reports• Yearly seminars/reports

Antropology

• Rapid assesments: Rapid formation of focus groups (women > 35 with > 5 children)

• Identify individuals who came back from the war at a specific time

• Real-time information: Who moved at a specific time or for a specific reason with or without family – other circumstances

• Test/support qualitative findings or studies• Official and unofficial ways of survival can be explored

(residence, legal illegal trade, favouritism, food aid)• Microepidemiology: mapping social capacity

Human security

• What is human security on a population base, community base and individual

• Monitors changes in sense of human security over time

• Long term effect• Dose-response effects (e.g. time exposed

to abduction, time in camp)• New/changing elements in human security

are captured

Psychiatry

• Dynamics of post stress conditions

• Dynamics of depression, suicide

• Special risk groups

• Alcohol and drug abuse and violence/family structure/migration

• Suburbanisation and men

Clinical medicine

• Link to hospital records

• Evaluate outcome from visits to health centers and hospitals

• Monitor real-time use of health care and actual morbidity (or fatality)

• Public health interventions in real life

Equity

• Identification of ultra-poor, extremely vulnerable

• DSS enables to break down the elements of a viscious circle: poor health -> poor working (farming) capacity -> poor income -> poor choices

• Security and socio-economic capacity

Various

• Repeated information on cattle, poultry• Crop yield, stocks• Monitor food intake, type of food, nutritional value• Food expenditure by season, residence etc.• Changing socio-economic status, changing values• Ethnic differences in behaviour, security• Monitors household income over time• Monitors assaults, crime• Monitor changes in peoples expectations• Chronic diseases, disability and security• Resilience: why do some manage to survive and get the

best out of a situation while others are not able to cope