Understanding humanitarian information infrastructure: An ethnographic case study of designing public health surveillance systems monitoring sexual violence and exploitation

Sexual violence and exploitation (SVE) in conflict settings is anunder reported phenomenon that has challenged service deliveryand humanitarian intervention. A proposed solution to thisproblem is to create a global SVE surveillance system to monitorand assess SVE in conflict settings. This requires large scalecollaboration and technical systems design among manyhumanitarian actors including United Nation agencies,international non-governmental associations, and communitybasedorganizations. While the solution to design the SVEsurveillance system has been initiated, little is known about theexisting information infrastructure that these groups currently use.A better understanding of the information infrastructure willinform the design and increase the chances of success inimplementing a SVE surveillance system.Related studies conducted in information studies by Susan LeighStar of large scale information infrastructures has provided arelevant methodological theory for this particular study, known asan ethnography of infrastructure. Ethnography of infrastructurerelies on qualitative and naturalistic investigative methods such asin depth interviews. The study lends itself to generalizableknowledge about data sharing, humanitarian informationinfrastructure, and complex systems design.