Provision of Information Management and Analysis Organizational Review

The KonTerra Group conducted this review. Findings expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of OCHA. The review focuses on OCHA’s IM and Analysis function (including its role in the provision of IM and Analysis products and services to the humanitarian community). It does not intend to represent a comprehensive overview of all IM and Analysis products and services owned by other humanitarian actors.
Provision of Information Management and Analysis Organizational Review

1. Background: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) plays a pivotal role in responding to humanitarian crises through coordination, advocacy, information management (IM), policy, humanitarian financing and resource mobilization. The IM and Analysis1 function is foundational to all humanitarian action, priorities, and the associated business functions internal and external to OCHA. The IM and Analysis process transforms data into information and then into action through six steps from planning, data collection, processing, analysis, and communication and is pivotal to the humanitarian community and its operations.

2. OCHA plays a critical dual role for IM and analysis for the entire humanitarian community, including other United Nations (UN) agencies and international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs). OCHA serves a role as both a coordinator of the IM and Analysis sector - supporting Agency, cluster, and NGOs specializing in IM and Analysis - and as a provider of essential IM and Analysis services. OCHA’s dual roles ensure the collection, aggregation, analysis, and data sharing on humanitarian situations, including needs, responses, and actors' capacities, to inform necessary priorities and decision making.

3. The purpose of this third-party review was to assess OCHA’s IM and analysis practices, products and systems to ensure that they are fit for purpose to support the OCHA Strategic Plan 2023-2026 and the implementation of humanitarian action by the humanitarian community.

4. Methodology: The review was conducted using a comprehensive, mixed methods approach to evaluate OCHA's IM and analysis practices relying on desk reviews, semi-structured interviews (individual and group), an online survey, and selected site visits to address four review questions:

i. Analytical Services: What analytical question should OCHA answer at the regional, country and headquarters levels?

ii. Platforms, Tools and Data: What common platforms, including data platforms, and data tools should OCHA provide to the humanitarian community? How does this ideal state align with the current state?

iii. Leadership and Coordination: What is OCHA’s role in ensuring a coherent suite of humanitarian data, IM services and products? What are the priority issues in the domain requiring coordination at the country, regional and global levels?

iv. Organizational Implications: What, if any, organizational shifts, including capacities and resources, does OCHA need to achieve the necessary common data platforms, answer analytic offering and successfully coordinate IM and Analysis services.

1. In total, 219 persons were interviewed either in person or remotely including during country visits to Panama, Jordan, Ukraine, Somalia, and Nigeria. An additional 117 persons responded to the global survey.