Children
Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
Children
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Read so far

NGO Data Protection Policies - Research Request

0 comments

I am a final year PhD student at American University in Washington D.C. where I am studying data protection within the humanitarian sector, specifically within disaster relief NGOs. My research explores the protective measures that are being used to safeguard the data obtained by aid workers whilst on deployment, specifically beneficiary data. From working in the sector for years myself in addition to looking at some of the publicly available policy documents online, I’ve noticed that there are many different approaches to the securing and protecting of data obtained whilst on deployment and I’m left with a question - ‘what kinds of protective practices are being used in the sector?’.

To research this, I’d like to start working my way through data protection policy documents from disaster relief NGOs, only ones available to the public online, so that I can better understand the lay of the land. I’m currently in the process of collecting these but as you can imagine, this is quite a task due to the rabbit warren-esque nature of Google. So, I’m hoping that some of you may be able to point me towards any publicly available NGO data protection policies that you know of to help with my search. Please feel able to either reply to this post with a link send a link directly to my email - ow5541a@american.edu

This may be overkill, but given that this PhD is concerned with privacy and safeguarding private information, I want to be completely clear about how I will use any documents or links you do direct me towards. I am asking for your help in directing me towards publicly available policy documents only and I am not requesting any private documents. This research directly supports my PhD study and links to information will only be mentioned in my dissertation.

If my dissertation is successful, it will be uploaded to the PhD thesis portal accessed via university libraries, I believe that this is standard. Beyond this, I may wish to include elements of my work in academic articles and in publicly accessible online media, in fact I think public access to my findings will be important if we are to better protect humanitarian data. I will post any of my work published in the online media to the group.

Although the Communication Initiative Network will be mentioned in my work should anyone respond to this post, you as an individual will not be named in my work - your personal details will not be shared by me in any capacity. My university email address is protected with appropriate and efficient security practices by an in-house university IT team.I want to reassure you that the aim of my research is to better understand and subsequently improve data protection and data security policies within NGOs and the wider humanitarian sector. It is not in any way to name and shame or publicize vulnerabilities. Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me via any of the means of contact outlined above.

Finally, thank you to all and best wishes, Olivia Williams