Verifying Information – Friend or Foe?

Verification of information in conflict-prone urban areas can be a real challenge.

GRRAM targets five geographic areas. While trying to gather general information, such as maps and other demographic information about the targeted areas, we discovered how challenging it was to obtain accurate data. There is scarcity of updated online information, which was further hindered by the fact that we can only engage with non-state actors. Information about conflict-prone urban areas is mostly restricted to governmental organizations who consider such information to be highly sensitive.

The following two best practices were learned in verifying information in challenging environments:

1. To collect information about your project’s target areas, go directly to the field while simultaneously trying to obtain information by other means.
2. It is important to work closely with key community leaders in selecting specific project sites so that they have greater ownership. Another benefit of their involvement is the reduced suspicion about the project teams’ intentions.