I’m pleased and excited to announce the first major project of the Ports in the Storm blog: a study of Qualitative Data-Gathering Methods of Major International Humanitarian Organizations. This study began as an independent study course for the summer of 2011, designed to be an exploration of the dominant qualitative data-gathering methods most often employed by the major international humanitarian aid organizations, under the supervision of Payson Adjunct Assistant Professor Nathan Morrow.
This study has grown into a larger and more exciting project than originally anticipated, and as such I have created a series of resources based on my findings, including an index of sources, a series compilations of methodology and utilization of a variety of qualitative methods, a discussion of prescribed methods vs. methods employed by the organizations studied, some best practices, gap analysis, and proposal for the minimum tools and training to be employed in each phase of the humanitarian program cycle.
These elements are set up as a series of blog posts from the past couple of weeks, and are all accessible via the page on this blog entitled “Qualitative Data-Gathering Methods of Major International Humanitarian Organizations“.
It is my sincere hope that this study and the resources complied therein will be useful for others in the field of international development and humanitarian aid studies, as a resource of best practices in qualitative research. I welcome and look forward to feedback – please let me know what you think and feel free to provide suggestions for additional resources and/or research!
Ports in the Storm 