Impact story - Building Trust: Local Partners, Country Funds and Data Responsibility

The Humanitarian Reset is about more accountable humanitarian action, deeper engagement with the communities we serve, prioritizing local and national partners for funding from pooled funds, and fostering greater collective action. None of this can be achieved without trust.

Managing data about people and operations safely, ethically and effectively is foundational for building trust between communities and humanitarian organizations. All humanitarian organizations need to balance the need to collect and share data with the responsibility to protect its misuse. However, local partners bear this responsibility even more given they are on the front lines of identifying those in need and delivering assistance, often in insecure and remote locations and with limited technical infrastructure. This combination of factors can increase the risk of mishandling personal or sensitive data in ways that can cause harm.

When local organizations receive funding from Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs), they often collect and share sensitive data as part of their programme implementation and monitoring. To help reduce the risk of data security incidents, OCHA’s Centre for Humanitarian Data has been providing data responsibility training to CBPF partners. Over the past two years, partners in the Central African Republic (CAR), Lebanon, Myanmar, Somalia and Sudan have taken part. Through practical, everyday actions, these partners are demonstrating how responsible data use protects the people they support, increases confidence and strengthens collaboration.