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Somali women’s political participation and leadership-evidence and opportunities (DFID research paper, 2017)

This report synthesises findings from an 11 month qualitative research project (August 2016 – June 2017), carried out by Social Development Direct and Forcier Consulting, and funded by the Research and Evidence Division (RED) within the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The research aims to provide evidence on the principal enabling and constraining factors for Somali women’s participation and leadership in government and political structures, and offers insight on the strategies and circumstances under which Somali women have, and have not, accessed and influenced within these spaces.

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Using Social Media Data in International Development Research, Monitoring & Evaluation (DFID Practice Note 2016)

Abstract: The global adoption of social media has seen the user base expand to an unprecedented level. Estimates put social media membership at around 2.5 billion non unique users globally, with Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounting for over half of these. Social media data can add value to international development research, monitoring and evaluation in several ways.

These data are‘transformative’ as they are user generated in real time and produced in large volumes in contrast to the necessarily retrospective snapshots of social trends provided by conventional means such as household surveys and administrative data. As such, they can provide insight into the behaviour and opinions of specific populations that are often unreachable by conventional methods where social media uptake is high.

The examples in this pratice note show cases where social media data were available in high volume in development contexts. However,it is important to note that for some situations and regions social media data may not be available in such volumes, precluding their use to gain near real time insights

4 case studies are included:

  • Data-Pop Alliance: Big Data for Disaster Resilience
  • Assessment Capacities Project – Nepal Earthquake
  • Mapping Refugee Media Journeys
  • Nigerian Election

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Social Media for Election Communication and Monitoring in Nigeria (Demos/DFID Paper 2015)

Nigeria has witnessed an exponential growth in internet and social media use. From a modest 200,000 users in 2000, by 2015 around 30 per cent of the population is online, increasingly on smart phones. The use of social media in elections initially became noticeable in the preparations for the 2011 Nigerian elections, and now receives widespread media attention for its role in informing, engaging and empowering citizens in Nigeria and across Africa.

Social media activity presents a novel way to research and understand attitudes, trends and media consumption. There is a growing number of academic and commercial efforts to make sense of social media data sets for research or (more typically) advertising and marketing purposes.

This project examines the potential of social media for monitoring and communication purposes, using the 2015 Nigerian elections as a case study. The purpose of the research is to develop an understanding of the effectiveness of social media use for communication and monitoring during the 2015 Nigerian election, and draw out lessons and possibilities for the use of social media data in other elections and beyond.

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