Mobile phones advancing in Zimbabwe - billboard in Harare. Photo: Anne Poulsen/IMS

An important – but often overlooked – element in the provision of adequate humanitarian aid is information. Relevant and precise information is a condition for meeting the needs of a population in crisis such as that in Zimbabwe   

Together with Nokia, the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre’s (HIFC) and other partners, IMS is piloting an initiative in Zimbabwe using mobile telephony to collect field data on access to essential medicines and knowledge of HIV around Zimbabwe. The pilot will be up and running in late summer 2010 and expected completed by the end of September.

Innovative data-gathering tool

Nokia has developed a software system called the Nokia Data Gathering Tool (NDGT) which allows humanitarian organisations to gather vital, sometimes life-saving data and share this information in a quick and timely manner with partner organisations, policy officials, the media and the general public.

Compared to traditional paper-based data gathering, the advantage of using mobile phone telephony is reduced data entry errors and cost effective in terms of less time spent typing data into data bases.

The Nokia tool has previously been used to facilitate communications and response amongst field workers in Brazil in relation to Dengue fever, as well as by UNICEF to monitor food distribution in Ethiopia

Accurate data saves lives

Media in Zimbabwe have found it difficult to operate and cover humanitarian issues and tend to approach them from a politicised angle. The problems spill into regional and international coverage of Zimbabwe, reinforcing the politicisation of the humanitarian issues, thus creating obstacles for all actors to disseminate independent and trustworthy information about a humanitarian situation.

As research costs remain high, data collection has sometimes had to be suspended at the expense of human development. Hurried and inaccurate research into looming epidemics, for example, can lead organisations and governments to miss their mark when responding, thus intensifying the need for proper research tools at hand in difficult environments.

Monitoring access to medicines

The pilot research project will be carried out by 15 field monitors in five districts (Bindura Nyava, Chinhoyi, Chikwaka, Bulawayo and Beitbridge) each carrying handheld devices from which they can carry out surveys and transmit them back to the centralised database. The survey results documenting access to medicines and attitudes to HIV will be crucial in informing policy makers and stakeholders working in health programming, as well as help to promote knowledge about the Nokia tool amongst other humanitarian organisations.

The project is implemented by IMS, Nokia, the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH), the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre’s (HIFC) and the International Organisation for Migration. For more information in this initiative, please contact IMS, hn[snabela]i-m-.dk.

Read more here about IMS' work with humanitarian information or about the IMS-founded Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre in Zimbabwe set up to improve access to and availability of vital humanitarian information in the public domain by way of the local media.