Implement Secondary Data Review
In the aftermath of a sudden onset emergency or during a protracted crisis, a large amount of data already exists and is continuously collected by non-emergency WASH actors (national governments, NGOs, UN agencies, development organizations, other clusters, etc). This data, not directly collected by or on behalf of the WASH coordination platform and its partners, is called secondary data.
Secondary data is often challenging to analyze because of its overwhelming amount, uneven quality and incomplete coverage. To make sense out of secondary data, a Secondary Data Review (SDR) must be implemented. An SDR is “a rigorous process of data collation, synthesis and analysis building on a desk study of all relevant data available” (ACAPS 2014).
Objectives of a SDR are two-fold. At the early stage of a sudden onset crisis, the SDR helps informing the initial response and feeding HPC outputs such as the Situational Analysis and Flash Appeal. At a later stage, the SDR helps identifying information gaps and designing primary data collection.
The SDR should be considered a continuous and iterative process rather than a one-off activity: the initial SDR should be updated on a regular basis throughout the response. It can remain the main source of data, or complement primary data collection.
The steps to implement a SDR are as follows:
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. Do not restrain yourself to WASH-specific information and include any relevant data from other key sectors (nutrition, health, etc.) as defined in your assessment strategy. For a list of potential sources of information, see the GWC list of key data sources in the Key guidance and tools section.
Create an assessment / secondary data registry
The compilation is a continuous and often collective process: strong data management procedures need to be set up. A SDR (or assessment) registry is a useful tool that will help organizing the information you collate. The registry is usually an Excel database (see a template in the Tool section) where you can classify the information based on different criteria.
Identify information gaps
Go through the secondary data and identify information/data gaps in terms of availability, quality, representativeness, stratification, geographical coverage, etc. comparing what is available with the requirements set in the assessment strategy. This will inform the decision to collect or not additional primary data.