The Use of Mobile Technology for Humanitarian Programming in Syria: Potential and Constraints

This report presents the findings from a qualitative research study commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) about the current and potential use of mobile technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian programming in Syria. The research involved two elements:

1. A desk-based review of existing evidence of mobile technology use; and
2. Findings from 58 interviews conducted in the fourth quarter of 2016, including with 48 Syria-based respondents and ten key informant interviewees outside Syria.

Interviewees in Syria included LAC representatives, non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers, technology providers and community respondents in Syrian Opposition, Kurdish, Government and Daesh-controlled areas. Syria-based respondents were asked about their personal use of mobile technology and how their community typically used it. Among them, respondents who worked for a humanitarian organisation were also asked about their organisation’s experience with mobile technology. As such, the respondent sample was skewed towards mobile technology users so as to explore the scope for further employment of such technology in humanitarian programming. Therefore, statistical data presented in this report cannot be taken as representative of Syrians’ overall mobile technology use.