The New Normal: Collecting Data Amidst A Global Pandemic

With the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts to contain it, the data and assessment landscape is facing long-term impact. Producing representative, disaggregated, agreed-upon, and up-to-date data on internal displacement – which is already challenging in emergencies and protracted crises – will become even more pertinent in a remotely-managed environment with little direct access to those populations.

This situation also creates opportunities to adapt, by looking to those who are already relying on vast amounts of data collected remotely, as well as the scientific community to better understand the explanatory power and characteristics of survey methods – beyond the tools and approaches used by most of us. In this discussion paper, JIPS’ Head of Information Management and Innovation, Wilhelmina Welsch, unpacks some of the immediate and longer-term shifts.