Implement Secondary Data Review
How will you do it?
Whether in the aftermath of a sudden onset or during a protracted crisis, a large amount of existing data is usually available. This data, collected by actors such as national governments, NGOs, UN agencies, development organizations, etc., is often challenging to analyze and process because of their overwhelming amount, uneven quality and incomplete coverage. To make sense out of existing data, you need to implement a Secondary Data Review (SDR), which is defined as “a rigorous process of data collation, synthesis and analysis building on a desk study of all relevant data available (ACAPS 2014)”.
The objective of a SDR is two-fold. At the early stage of a sudden onset, the SDR helps you inform the initial response and feeding planning documents such as the Situational Analysis and Flash Appeal. Furthermore, the SDR helps you identifying information gaps that need to be addressed and designing adequately primary data collection, including methodology, indicators and coverage.
Throughout the crisis, the SDR should continue on a regular basis. It will either remain your most important source of data, or complement any primary data you collect to inform the response and feed key planning documents (HNO, HRP, Cluster Strategy, etc.). For this reason, the SDR should be considered a continuous and iterative process rather than a one-off activity. For more comprehensive guidance, please refer to ACAPS’ technical brief (2014) in the Key guidance and tools section.
A SDR generally follows those steps:
Collect existing assessments and other secondary data
Locate, track and compile relevant pieces of information (reports, maps, datasets, etc.) into a shared folder on a platform such as Dropbox or Google Drive. For a list of potential sources, see the GWC list of key WASH sources in the Key guidance and tools.
Create an assessment / secondary data registry
Read the sources (this can be done by a team of people), enter relevant information into your SDR tool and tag the information accordingly. Compile entered data into a single database. Clean the compiled secondary data to ensure data has been entered and tagged correctly.
Analyse secondary data and identify information gap
Analyse the secondary data according to your pre-defined tags and analysis questions. Identify gaps where no assessment has taken place yet, or only incomplete ones.
Share Secondary Data Review findings
Draft an SDR report (you can use the GWC SDR Report template, see Key Guidance and Tools below); this can be either a formal report that is shared widely with WASH partners or a simple, informal running list of key findings and information gaps that is used internally within the WASH Coordination platform.