This is an Information management System (IMS) developed by INTERSOS, with the technical support of the research center FBK-irst and its spin-off MPA Solutions, to strengthen the protection capacity in Aden (South Yemen) for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the other UN agencies and the NGOs working in the protection field in Aden and Sana'a. This tool will help in addressing the protection risks confronting refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen, focusing on women and children, specifically those who reside in difficult circumstances, in Kharaz camp, Basateen urban area (suburb of Aden) and in Sana'a.

We have developed methods and a prototype system to integrate and distribute information regarding the protection risks and the causes that permit an action addressing the victim needs while operating on the causes. Sectoral information is stored in a unified geo database and can be consulted on-line. The goal of presenting this data online is to strengthen the capacity to share information with UNHCR, as well as with other UN agencies and NGOs, integrating all the actors in a wide-spread collaborative information sharing system, as well as to highlight any gaps in referral system.

The aim is that this tool will help and facilitate to plan the humanitarian intervention reinforcing the coordination mechanism among the different actors, international and local NGOs and agencies. We invite all agencies operational in Yemen to adopt this common tool of analysis testing its effectiveness and providing feedback.

As a consequence of the 1991 civil war in Somalia, Yemen became a safe country of asylum for the Somali refugee population: there are currently more than 48,000 refugees registered with UNHCR and the Government of Yemen. It is estimated that this number is but a fraction of the total number of Somalis in the country, the majority being women and children that have been living in Yemen since early or mid 1990s and have experienced or witnessed violence in Somalia. Many refugees live in very difficult circumstances especially in Kharaz camp which has some 10,000 residents and in Basateen where it is estimated that more than 14,000 Somali refugees live in exceedingly depressed circumstances with very little access to assistance.
The risk assessment exercise that Intersos, in collaboration with UNHCR, started to undertake in May 2008 was designed to obtain a comprehensive picture of the protection risks faced by the refugee population in Kharaz camp and Basateen urban area, focusing on women and children.
The exercise provided INTERSOS and UNHCR, as well as all agencies working in Yemen, a clear profiling of those most at risk , as well as the gaps into the referral system, and the identification of the appropriate solution to address those risk.

The Risk Assessment exercise has been conducted using the Heightened Risk Assessment Identification tool developed by UNHCR to better identify and prioritize the individual most at risk in the different operational context, ensuring their appropriate referral to the referral services as needed. The information collected includes:

• The profiling of the population at risk in Kharaz camp and in Basateen urban area:
  • Total number of the population and composition of the families
  • Total number of the population identified as most at risk
• Profile of the single individual most at risk
  • The heightened risk categories of the individuals identified as most at risk
  • The typologies of trauma to which the individual at risk has been subjected
  • The consolidated risk rating of the individual
  • The needed referral type

All the data collected during the profiling exercise has been entered into a remote database, but due to the high confidentiality of the information, only aggregated survey data will be posted and analyzed on the platform, not individual confidential data that would be kept in the offline client interface.
Upon completion of the risk assessment exercise, INTERSOS set up a program of monitoring of the already profiled individuals, meant at reinforce coordination mechanism among the different actors, international and local NGOs and agencies and to nearly follow up the referred identified cases.

The IMS has been built on the experience gained on the implementation and use of WebGIS platoforms in Darfur and Tchad. The WebGis platform was first designed to support returnee monitoring in West Darfur (Sudan) where Intersos undertook a return- oriented profiling exercise, to obtain a picture of the current and the pre-conflict situation in West Darfur. The experience was as well duplicated for the region of Dar Sila, East Tchad, where the WebGis is supporting INTERSOS and the other UN agencies and NGOs operating in the area, in planning the activities and the needed humanitarian intervention in case of return of the IDS in their village of origin.
The core of the IMS is a remote (geo)database where all the data collected are regularly entered using a client accessible directly online (web). The database can be updated either on line (when the internet connection is available) or on "store and forward" basis. This means that data are archived locally until an internet connection is available. When the connection is available data are automatically transferred and synchronized with the remote database. This way of working will allow the most flexible procedures of data entry.

It is possible to interrogate the IMS using specific criteria to extract particular data section. The main outputs the IMS makes available are:

• Information regarding the profiling of the total population of Kharaz camp and Basateen urban area from the Heightened Risk Assessment tool used to conduct the Risk Assessment exercise.
• Report and statistics:
  • Summaries on the population most at risk among the people of concern
  • Summaries on the consolidated risk rating (H,M,L) of the population at risk
  • Aggregated and disaggregated statistics on the specific trauma of the population at risk
  • Statistic on the SGBV cases breakdown and thypology

The IMS is available to the following actors/stakeholders:

• INTERSOS field officers access, update and interrogate the database in real time.
• UNHCR field officers/program officers consult the database directly from Internet.
• UN agencies/NGOs operating in Yemen access the information for planning better response to protection risks and contributes to maintain the database by sharing the information gathered through their own monitoring of the identified most at risk individuals.

Access is provided to different users through customized interfaces that allow different views of geodata and of the available analysis tools. High interoperability is assured in the IMS in terms of data formats and standards. This assures easy data sharing with other actors who need of part of the dataset.

Project coordination:
INTERSOS
Alessandro Guarino

Scientific supervision
MPBA Project of the SSI Division of FBK-irst
Cesare Furlanello

Software development
MPA Solutions coop a r.l.
Steno Fontanari

 
→ News Release - 25.01.07
→ Post Emergency Center (PEC) - 27.01.07