Insight
Making data matter: NIRAS’s approach to monitoring and learning in fragile settings and conflict zones
Data is important in what we do and this is reflected in NIRAS' approach to monitoring and learning—especially in areas where each data point is crucial for effective decisions.
June 11, 2025
Collecting data that serve people and improve impact
In fragile and conflict-affected areas, data is not an academic exercise—it is a tool for action. When collected ethically and used meaningfully, it can help target resources more effectively, adapt programmes to evolving needs, and ensure that aid reaches those who need it most.
At NIRAS, we see data as a lever to serve populations, enhance project effectiveness, and improve long-term efficiency—not just in terms of cost but also sustainability and ownership. Good data supports better decisions, strengthens trust, and creates space for learning across all levels.
Over the past years, we have developed an approach to monitoring and learning that works well in fragile settings: anchored in local partnerships, adapted to complex environments, and designed to turn evidence into impact. When resources are limited and risks are high, every data point must count.
Case Study – Regional Knowledge Platform in the Lake Chad Basin
As part of a World Bank–funded initiative led by the Lake Chad Basin Commission, NIRAS conducted a large-scale data collection effort across 24 volatile border regions in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Through perception surveys and focus groups involving over 10,000 respondents, including highly vulnerable communities, NIRAS helped establish a shared, evidence-based picture of local conditions. The project supported both national and regional dialogue on development, governance and stabilisation, and contributed directly to the design of a regional knowledge hub—a platform for coordination, programming and political reflection across Lake Chad Basin Commission member states.
A robust and adaptive model, anchored in grassroots reality and enhanced with digital tools
Our work begins with a principle: no one understands a context better than those who live and work within it. That’s why we have built, over time, a network of long-term partners—institutions and individuals rooted in their territories, with the trust and knowledge needed to operate in fragile and hard-to-reach areas.
We do not rotate sub-contractors from one project to the next. Instead, we invest in relationships that are stable, balanced and non-binding—grounded in shared values and mutual learning. Together with our partners, we co-develop methods, train field teams, and adapt to shifting environments. This long-term collaboration has been key in projects such as the GIZ-funded Third Party Monitoring in the Liptako-Gourma Region, where continuity and local anchorage were prerequisites to accessing highly sensitive areas in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.
Our data systems are designed to be as rigorous as they are flexible. From the Lake Chad Basin to eastern DRC, we apply a six-phase approach—co-designing tools, selecting inclusive teams, delivering targeted training, deploying with real-time support, cleaning data daily, and analysing results in dialogue with local actors. These steps are not rigid procedures but adaptable modules that respond to the realities on the ground.
In each case, field teams are selected not just for their technical skills, but for their linguistic, cultural, and geographic proximity to the communities they work with. This ensures a safer and more ethical and meaningful interaction with respondents—especially in areas where trust is fragile and research fatigue is high.
To support this work, we rely on a secure and interactive digital platform that allows for real-time monitoring, geo-referenced visualisation, and shared access to all outputs. Whether in Somalia or South Kivu, our clients can follow data collection as it unfolds and adjust their priorities as needed.
But the strength of the system lies not only in its methods or tools—it lies in its capacity to remain relevant, safe and credible, even in rapidly evolving environments. From field authorisations to shifting frontlines, our teams adapt. They make decisions in real time, based on proximity and local intelligence. This is what allows us to maintain both operational access and analytical depth, project after project.
Turning data into action
The goal of data collection in fragile settings is never just to measure—but rather to enable action, adaptation and learning. Each piece of data we collect is designed not only to document local realities, but also to support feedback loops, inform decision-making, and generate evidence-based learning across all levels of engagement.
Whether we are conducting conflict-sensitive monitoring in the Far North of Cameroon, nationwide education surveys in Niger, or perception studies targeting vulnerable groups in Chad, Gabon or Côte d’Ivoire, the purpose remains the same: to collect the right information, in the right way, to inform, learn and adjust.
Our systems serve multiple functions—real-time monitoring, baseline measurement, early warning, and outcome analysis. But more than functions, they support adaptive programming. The data we produce help identify needs, anticipate risks, and understand how interventions are perceived and experienced—across territories, population groups, and time.
Case Study – Observatoire Afrique: Multi-Country Perception Research
Commissioned by the French Ministry of Armed Forces, NIRAS is leading a multi-year, multi-country perception study across West and Central Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. The project covers both urban and remote conflict-affected areas in countries such as Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, and Côte d’Ivoire, with data collected through large-scale, repeated quantitative and qualitative surveys. By monitoring perceptions over time, the project aims to detect tipping points in public opinion based on real, verifiable evidence. With a permanent team and over 40 facilitators per cycle, the Observatory combines methodological rigour, context-sensitive tools, and digital dashboards to support one of the most ambitious strategic perception monitoring systems in the region.
In eastern DRC, for example, the data we collect allows us to detect signs of social tension or institutional decline. In the Lake Chad Basin, our third party monitoring systems provided continuous insight into populations' perceptions of services, safety and trust—helping partners recalibrate in real time.
We use triangulation to build a strong, multi-layered evidence base—combining surveys, interviews, focus groups and in-field observations. Our findings are discussed, validated and refined with local actors. This is what gives our analysis both its credibility and operational value.
But data are not the end. Learning is built into every stage of the process—from question design to dissemination. We facilitate vertical learning from the field to donors and HQs, and horizontal learning between actors, territories and institutions. We produce tailored outputs—dashboards, briefs, policy notes—and support their appropriation by clients, local authorities and civil society.
In a time of growing uncertainty, fatigue and fragmentation, learning from reliable evidence is essential. And for that, the data must be collected with care, analysed with rigour, and used with purpose.
Making data truly matter
The NIRAS MEL & Peace team works in some of the most fragile and complex environments—conflict zones, remote areas, and regions with limited state presence. In these contexts, we build data systems that are trusted, used, and understood—designed to inform strategic and operational decisions.
What we deliver is not just information, but strong evidence that is reliable, relevant and directly connected to the questions our clients are asking. Through tailored outputs and actionable insights, our goal remains clear: to help navigate complexity and improve outcomes for people on the ground.
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