In response to calls for more systemic monitoring of attacks on aid workers and improved analysis, INSO has launched the next generation of the Conflict & Humanitarian Data Centre (CHDC). The CHDC is the database that powers INSO’s analysis and services globally and is now available to all registered partners worldwide.
Since 2017, there have been multiple calls to strengthen and scale-up reliable data collection, sharing and analysis mechanisms, highlighting the need for a standardised and comparable system capturing attacks on aid workers. The Presence & Proximity (2017) report highlighted that data gaps and inconsistent methodologies and standards prevented humanitarians obtaining a comprehensive picture of aid-worker security risks across contexts. Subsequent policy discussions have revisited this theme. In 2021, the EU and Norway co-chaired a discussion series on ‘Monitoring the protection, safety and security of humanitarian aid and medical workers in armed conflict’ which stressed the importance of collaborative platforms for both data collection and analysis and advocated for the development of a standardised and comparable data system.
CHDC map showing number of incidents per country
The launch of the Conflict & Humanitarian Data Centre (CHDC), with the financial support from the foreign ministries of Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom, represented a critical milestone towards this objective. CHDC is designed to support advanced conflict analysis in a humanitarian setting, including its impact on aid workers and is fuelled by the reporting by our NGO partners as well as our network of Safety Advisers and Field Monitors. This drives INSO’s own analysis and is suitable for use in daily operations, planning, research and policy making. The now updated platform provides greater granularity of incident data and includes easier access to incidents affecting humanitarians, enables quicker analysis on the impact of conflict incidents on life and property and a fully redesigned user-interface.
CHDC provides the most comprehensive tally of incidents affecting humanitarians across the 22 countries[1] it covers. Whilst publicly accessible databases are limited to only those incidents resulting in a casualty[2], or those affecting specific actors such as the UN or health workers, CHDC aims to include all incidents affecting all humanitarian actors – including local and national NGOs[3].
Importantly, CHDC is distinctive in situating these incidents directly impacting aid workers within a wider dataset of all conflict incident enabling greater contextualized analysis.
Figure showing the number of incidents affecting humanitarians as a percentage of the total number of conflict incidents collated by INSO.
With over 1.5 million incidents entered to date and an average of 500 incidents added every day from INSO’s country offices, CHDC helps humanitarians to monitor conflict across a range of vectors including by actor, location, date/time, incident type and impact.
This inclusive model and level of data saturation substantially improves analysis, and is vital to identify emerging trends, patterns and drivers of violence against aid workers and guide both operational and policy responses. The development and expansion of CHDC has addressed many of the critical gaps previously identified with security incident data collection, sharing and analysis over the last decade and provides a clear data standard to enable effective analysis for improved humanitarian safety.
Moving forward we aim to not only strengthen the quality of data available for analysis but also support the utilisation of this data and analysis throughout the humanitarian sector. As an INSO service, CHDC data is not provided in isolation but embedded in INSO’s wider ecosystem of field support. Our analysts and safety advisers remain available across the globe to support partners to make use of CHDC and systematically integrate this analysis into their decision-making process to better protect aid workers.
To learn more about CHDC and how you can make us of our data system, visit the platform directly, or sign up for one of our monthly webinars.
Access to CHDC is available to all INSO’s registered partners. If you’re not registered, explore how INSO can support your mission at NGOsafety.org/our-services
The development and expansion of CHDC has been supported by funding from Global Affairs Canada, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Le Gouvernement du Grand-Duché du Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
[1] As of November 2024, CHDC covers Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen
[2] INSO estimates that only approximately 20% of incidents affecting humanitarians result in a casualty. Between 2022 to date, CHDC has recorded 17,673 incidents directly impacting humanitarian actors (INGOs, NNGOs, UN Agencies, RC/RC movements and Humanitarian Associated Personnel). Of these only 3,290 resulted in the death or injury of an aid worker.
[3] Between 2022 to date, CHDC has recorded 3,734 incidents that directly impact Local and/or National NGOs, representing over 20% of humanitarian incidents recorded.