Data Collection and Evidence Building to Support Education in Emergencies

This NORRAG Special Issue focuses on why data and other kinds of evidence are nevertheless crucial for understanding and addressing situations of emergency and protracted crises. It also aims to provide insight into the ethical and material challenges to overcome in gathering evidence when priorities can seem to make such efforts both morally questionable and logistically impossible. Urgency stemming from immediate safety and health needs combined with inadequate human and material resources compel actors to give low priority to what can be seen as technocratic concerns. Research in emergency settings is complicated by safety concerns but also sensitive political, social and cultural environments making identification of “what works” a rather daunting task. The ecological validity of findings is usually limited to very specific contexts owing to the idiosyncratic nature of conflict and emergency situations. These in turn lead to weaker advocacy and lobbying power, critical to increase the level of support to EiE (education in emergencies).