Research, Data & Performance Management

Submitted by SA Secretariat on Mon, 2016-04-18 11:36

The Thematic Group on Research, Data, and Performance Management is an open multi-stakeholder group, including representatives from academia, governments, international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector. The Thematic Group has two main objectives: First, developing systematic research and practical evidence-based approaches matters for the success of the Solutions Alliance. Interventions need a rigorous evidence-base. The purpose of this Working Group is twofold. First, the Working Group will seek to make relevant research and data accessible, transparent and applicable. We will identify knowledge gaps and find ways to address such gaps. Second, we will develop practical, hands-on guidance on data and performance management for Solutions Alliance members and other practitioners to use as they pursue joint work. This will include developing model approaches to data collection, target and indicator-setting, and performance management (or monitoring and evaluation). The Thematic Group has collaborated on the following products:

  1. With the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre: Bibliography on economic impact of forcibly displaced on local populations and host states;
  2. With RefugePoint and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative: Presentation and Discussion on the Refugee Integration Scale Update;
  3. With UNHCR: List of recent ongoing and completed best practice research on durable solutions and economic impact of refugees;
  4. UNHCR, the Oxford Refugee Studies Centre, the World Bank, and Knomad organized the first-ever, that we know of, meeting of academics to assess which methodologies are the most relevant for measuring the economic impacts of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on Host Communities and Host Countries. The meeting summary is (attached in pdf) and more information is available at: http://www.knomad.org/thematic-working-groups/forced-migration-and-development;
  5. The Solutions Alliance Research, Data and Performance Management Thematic Group Speaker Series- Results from the Labour Market Impacts of Forced Displacement Research in Burundi and Tanzania. On behalf of the Group, UNHCR hosted a presentation by Carlos Vargas Silva at the University of Oxford presenting: “Labour Market Impacts of Forced Migration (LAMFOR) Project: Two Case Studies in Burundi and Tanzania”. This two-hour presentation shared results from a multi-year research project assessing the labour market consequences of hosting refugees; the economic consequences of refugee return; impact on land ownership; and long-term impacts on education. The analysis is based on quantitative analysis of new panel datasets with longitudinal information on those left behind, IDPs, refugees and their hosts. The project is funded by the IZA Institute for The Study of Labor and the UK Department for International Development. For more information, please see: https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/project/the-labour-market-impacts-of-forced-migration-lamfor/
  6. Under the leadership of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of IDPs, the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) has initiated a collaborative project called: “Informing responses to support durable solutions for IDPs”. The project aims to operationalize the 2010 IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for IDPs and develop agreed-upon indicators, tools, methodologies and guidance for comprehensive yet practical approaches to durable solutions analysis. Ultimately, the project aims to support context-specific, evidence-based joint responses to internal displacement situations. A Technical Steering Committee comprising humanitarian, development and peacebuilding actors, alongside academic experts, has been established to guide the project’s work. JIPS brought together project stakeholders at a workshop in January 2016 to finalise the initial set of durable solutions indicators (report below). The indicators will be field-tested during 2016 by JIPS and Technical Steering Committee members, which include Solutions Alliance partners, in order to inform guidance development for their use further afield.

Co-Chairs:

  • Theresa Beltramo, UNHCR
  • Alexander Betts, Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University

Group members:

  • The Government of Canada
  • Joint IDP Profiling Service
  • Norwegian Refugee Council
  • Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University
  • RefugePoint
  • Stanford University
  • Tufts University
  • United Nations Development Programme
  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  • The World Bank

Events

Research, Data & Performance Management Group Speaker Series, January 21, 2016 — Switzerland.
Research, Data & Performance Management Group Meeting, November 17, 2015 — Switzerland.
Research, Data & Performance Management Group Meeting, September 8, 2015 — Switzerland.
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