Humanitarian Diplomacy Course Research Guide

Table of Contents

The research task………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2

Some example research papers…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

The research guide ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Selecting your topic and background reading ………………………………………………………………….. 3 Literature review ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 2. Determining research questions and goals ……………………………………………………………………… 4 Some example research questions ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 3. Determining data-gathering and analysis techniques (research methodology) ……………………. 6 Primary vs secondary research ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6 Online research…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7 Qualitative and quantitative ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Evaluating sources …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8 Assessing online information……………………………………………………………………………………………………….9 Wikipedia …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9 Primary research: interviews and surveys …………………………………………………………………………………… 10 Survey research: questionnaire and interviews …………………………………………………………………………… 10 4. Collecting data (conducting research)……………………………………………………………………………11 5. Evaluating and analysing the data ………………………………………………………………………………… 11 6. Reporting on the results (preparing your written paper)………………………………………………….11 Writing style checklist ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12

The research task

During the four-week research phase of the Humanitarian Diplomacy (HD) online course you will apply your knowledge to analysing specific HD actions or activities. Working individually or in pairs, you will select a topic relevant to your work, country or region, and prepare a short research paper. Your research paper should do some or all of the following:

Describe the HD action: what were the objectives, how were they set and by whom, who were the actors, who were the beneficiaries, what techniques and strategies were employed, what was the time frame, etc.
Describe the outcomes and impact of the action at relevant levels (local, national, regional, and/or international)
Describe the means chosen to evaluate the action and the results achieved
Analyse the strong and weak points of the action
Describe HD activities which accompanied the implementation stages of the action taken.
If relevant and possible, provide the views and reflections of some of the actors involved in

the action (e.g. through interviews)

If relevant, compare the action to other examples of HD in the same country or region, or

examples of similar actions in other places

Provide lessons learned, recommendations for continuation, or future similar initiatives

At the end of the four-week period, you will submit a written research paper of 4000–5000 words, or 6000–8000 words if two participants work together (excluding executive summary and reference list). Why this length? 5000 to 6000 words is a fairly typical length for an academic article published in a peer-reviewed journal or for a research paper as part of a Diploma qualification.

You will have individual support from a research tutor starting before the half-way point of the online course and continuing throughout the four-week research phase.

Before the research phase starts, your tutor is available to discuss your proposal with you and to help you prepare for the research phase: refining your research questions, drafting your research paper outline, setting up interview questions if needed, identifying resources, etc.
During the research phase, your tutor will read draft chapters (ideally on a weekly basis) and provide feedback on the structure and content of your paper.
Your tutor can also assist you with the technical aspects of writing an academic research paper (e.g. citations and reference list) and advice you if you need to seek assistance with editing in the English (or French or Spanish) language.
Your research tutor can facilitate consultation with the course lecturing team on questions related to your research topic, as needed.

After the submission deadline, research papers will be reviewed by the course team and you will receive a grade and written feedback.

Some example research papers

Here are some examples of research papers written by participants in earlier sessions of the HD online course, illustrating different kinds of topics and approaches.

Cash Transfers: The Auxiliary Role of Red Cross in New Zealand Disaster Recovery Cash

Transfer Programmes (Alison Maccoll)

The Role of Humanitarian Diplomacy in the Closure of Dadaab Refugee Camp (Maureen

Maina)

La Diplomatie Humanitaire au Cameroun appliquée à la guerre asymétrique contre la secte terroriste Boko Haram (Hermann Ndadjo Mba)
Enhancing Resilience-supportive Policy-making in South East Asia: A Humanitarian Diplomacy Approach to ASEAN (Giorgio Ferrario)
Evidence-based Humanitarian Diplomacy (Terrie Takavarasha)
Operationalising Humanitarian Diplomacy: Negotiating Access in Southern Afghanistan

(William Carter)

The Role of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in Shifting the Nuclear Disarmament Debate from one of Security to Humanitarian Considerations and the Path Forward (Louise Sarsfield Collins)
Défis liés à l’application effective du statut d’auxiliaire de la Croix-Rouge Malienne (Haidara Ismaila)

Further sample research papers are provided on the HD Resources page in the online classroom.

The research guide

This short guide offers practical advice on preparing research papers. The guide is organised in six sections, to help you at each stage of the research process:

Selecting your topic and background reading
Determining research questions and goals
Determining data-gathering and analysis techniques (research methodology)
Collecting data (conducting research)
Evaluating and analysing data
Reporting on the results (preparing your written paper)

Although each stage is presented separately here, in reality they may overlap, and you may need to repeat or return to key stages as you progress. For example, you may do background reading throughout the project to improve your understanding of the topic. You may identify or gain access to important background documents only later in the project. Research or data you collect may lead you to refine or expand your research questions. Collected data may prompt you to do further reading in order to better understand and analyse the results.

Selecting your topic and background reading

Usually you will begin by selecting your topic and scanning existing literature (reports, documentation, media articles, etc.) to get a general sense of available information and research which has already been done. Once you have settled on a topic, you should then begin more extensive background reading of existing literature. This ‘literature review’ should:

Give you a good understanding of the topic you have selected, and the concepts and theories that have guided and explained research in your chosen area

Familiarise you with research that has already been done in this area, so you benefit from this work and do not simply repeat it (and conversely, help you to identify gaps in the existing research which your research may address)
Highlight the kind of data you may need to collect, the research methodologies previous researchers have used, and the ways they have analysed and interpreted their data and findings
Help you to formulate useful research questions
Provide you with material for your written paper

Literature review

Your paper should include a short literature review section: a survey and assessment of existing knowledge relevant to your topic. Here are a few tips for presenting this section of your paper:

Be critical. Focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the research you are reviewing.
Assess the quality of the sources. Do not rely on sources which are not authoritative.
Adopt a narrative style. Don’t simply summarise the literature you are reviewing; show

how it contributes something to the area you are researching.

Don’t include everything you have read! You only need to cover the readings which

were most relevant, and which help you to build your own narrative.

Keep good records of everything you review/read. You need to be able to quickly go

back to key sources for citations and referencing. There are now many digital and online reference management tools to assist, some available for free (e.g. Zotero – which you can read about in Section 5.2 of the Online Study Guide in your classroom).

Even before writing up your final paper, it’s good practice to take careful notes, including the source and page number of any information you note down. This can help you to find your way back to that same information later on, and also to avoid accidental plagiarism (which may occur if you have copied information from a particular source, but later on forget that you did not write this yourself).

Determining research questions and goals

Formulating a clear research question or questions allows you to focus your work and determine the purpose of your study. It helps you to decide which literature to review, who can provide relevant information, what kinds of research methodologies you might use, what questions to ask if you use interviews, and how to analyse and present your findings.

There are probably many different questions you might ask, connected to the topic you have selected. Start by asking yourself ‘What exactly do I aim to discover or conclude through this research?’ Are you trying to find out how and why a particular HD action was successful, or why it failed? Do you want to determine if a similar action might work well in another context? Do you want to produce recommendations for further actions? The questions you decide to ask determine the focus of your research, and will also frame the way you analyse and present your research findings.

Although you can refine or further develop your research questions as you progress, it is important to spend time early in the project defining and clearly formulating your initial aims. You should be able to state each research question in one or two short sentences.

Some example research questions

Topic: Cash Transfers: The Auxiliary Role of Red Cross in New Zealand Disaster Recovery Cash Transfer Programmes (Alison Maccoll)
Questions:

Who are the key providers of financial assistance post disaster in New Zealand? and what roles do they play in a post disaster response/recovery context?
What and how can the New Zealand Red Cross contribute to the provision of financial assistance post disaster? What is the evidence? What is the organisation’s capacity and capability?
Who are the key stakeholders in government? What is the most appropriate way to approach them? What engagement strategies are likely to be most effective?
What else is happening in the political landscape that could influence the outcome?

Topic: Advocating for Humanitarian Aid and Sustainable Development with the Austrian Government – A Roadmap for Change in the Legislative Session 2018-2021 (Barbara Busch)
Questions:

What are the lessons learned from previous legislative periods with respect to Austrian Red Cross international messages? Why did some previous positions lead to changes and why not the others?
Where are the best angles to position Austrian Red Cross in the debate? Are traditional interlocutors in the Foreign Ministry and Austrian Development Agency sufficient for future changes or will it pay to engage with other ministries on a more systematic basis? (Bearing in mind that there will be elections in mid-October and a new government in early 2018)
Which international policy frameworks (Sustainable Development Goals, World Humanitarian Summit, Sendai Framework for DRR, OECD-DAC peer review) can Austrian Red Cross best use to push international humanitarian and development issues and how?

Topic: Advocating on Behalf of Remand Detainees in South Africa (Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi) Questions:

What are the comparative numbers for remand detainees in other comparable countries and the typical length of time people are kept in remand?
What remedies have been proposed by other agencies in the country and outside?
3. What is the background to the relationship with the Department of Correctional Services

(DCS), and what are the possible engagement strategies which will lead to a change in attitude and accessibility? What has been the DCS perception of itself and of its efforts to alleviate the overcrowding issue?

What would be the most effective way of conducting a public campaign to increase awareness of human rights and the rights of prisoners and detainees, and what would be the most effective mix of public and private advocacy, alone and in partnerships, on this issue?

Topic: Case Study: Group for Safe and Secure Housing after 2007 Peru Earthquake (Javier Ormeno) Questions:

Which were the main reconstruction actors in Peru during 2008-2010? What were their goals and accomplishments? What was the role of Red Cross (Secretariat, NS and PNS)?
Was there an HD strategy in place? Did it serve every member of the group equally?
3. The Group for Safe and Secure Housing aimed for the promotion of building with low-cost,

seismic resistant, techniques and the use of government grants for re-construction. To what

extent did it succeed in leaving reconstruction tools for rebuilding after the next earthquake? 4. What HD strategies will be required for the future of this program, given that Peru is in an

earthquake zone and more tragedies of this scale can be predicted with certainty?

Determining data-gathering and analysis techniques (research methodology)

After obtaining basic background information and formulating your research questions, you will be in a good position to select appropriate research methodologies and plan your research. At this phase you will select the best method to obtain the data and information you need. For example, will you be able to obtain the data you need through documents published by the organisation(s) responsible for the HD action, or will you need to conduct interviews with key people who were/are involved? Do you need to use surveys (perhaps online) or interviews to examine the impact of project ‘on the ground’? Will your study benefit from looking at similar projects in other countries or regions?

Once you have determined the most appropriate methodology to obtain data for your project, you also need a plan for implementing the methodology. Do you need permission from any institution or agency to carry out this study? How can you best approach interviewees and obtain their cooperation? What is your time frame for carrying out the research? Are there some elements which need to be done before others (e.g. interviews with government officials to learn more about the intended impact of an action may need to take place before a survey to determining the actual impact of the action)? You will need to schedule your research carefully to complete it within the given time frame. You may also need a back-up plan in case you do not obtain the results you need; for example, if you do not get a sufficient number of survey questionnaires returned.

In this section, we look briefly at a couple useful basic distinctions in research methods. Then we look in more detail at collecting information online, evaluating sources, and interviews and survey research.

Primary vs secondary research

Research can be roughly divided into primary or secondary research (although the division is not always straightforward).

Primary research is the collection of data that does not already exist, for example through questionnaires and interviews with research subjects, or field work.
Secondary research involves the collection, analysis, and/or synthesis of existing research. Secondary research is normally conducted through reading books, periodicals, and other resources on a given topic.

Any research project will involve some secondary research. You will need to do background reading on the topic covered by the HD action in question, and you will need to read any documentation available about the project, including reports. If a lot of material is available, your research project may be based completely on secondary research, as you focus on review and analysis of documents relevant to the topic.

There are many sources for secondary research relevant to HD, including:

Books or chapters in books
Journal articles (online or in print)
Documents or reports published by government institutions, or by international or non-

governmental organisations

Information or statistics published on government or non-governmental websites
Legislation, treaties, administrative or judicial decisions

Documents/studies by non-profit think-tanks, private consulting firms, political parties, or interest groups
Newspaper or magazine articles
Social media postings, including blog postings by respected authorities on a topic
Public opinion surveys and polls
Speeches by public figures, office holders, and decision-makers

There are many advantages to using secondary data for your research.

Cost: Secondary data sources are often abundant and readily available via the Internet and therefore less costly than undertaking field research, interviews, or surveys.
Time: Secondary data is also available for analysis relatively quickly. Digital (online) storage and retrieval systems mean secondary data is available almost instantaneously. However, time is still required to find the data and to arrange it in a suitable format, particularly when obtained from multiple sources.
Quality: Secondary data has, to some extent, already been tested and refined.
Access to difficult populations: Access to certain populations may be difficult for individual

researchers; relying on secondary data eliminates or reduces the need for direct access.

Availability of longitudinal data: Secondary data is generally regularly collected by a range

of research organisations/governments, so it often includes a survey of a particular topic over a long time period.

However, there are also some risks and disadvantages:

Validity and quality control: Quality may vary between sources and is sometimes difficult to check whether those who collected the data followed appropriate procedures.
Contradictions: Journals and social media, especially, contain a vast array of contradictory information. It’s important to sort this out, and primary research is often necessary to separate fact from fiction in secondary data.
Limited familiarity: Primary researchers are ‘closer’ to the data and know its strengths and weaknesses.
Data gaps: It is rare that any single data set will contain all the information you need to answer your research question.

Online research

Today, a great deal of secondary research can be done online. Governments, academic institutions, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations all publish useful material on their websites. In addition, online secondary research (such as social media postings) may provide entry points or contacts for primary data collection. Therefore, it is important to make effective use of online materials. Please read Diplo’s Finding Information Online (Section 2 of the Online Study Guide in the classroom) for advice on how search engines work, how to find information not available via search engines, how to evaluate sources, and more.

Qualitative and quantitative

Another useful distinction is between qualitative and quantitative research.

Qualitative research focuses on gathering and analysing non-numerical data such as people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviours, and interactions. Methods of qualitative inquiry include interviews, focus groups, case studies, document analysis, and participant observation.
Quantitative research, in contrast, involves the gathering and analysis of numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers in order to identify statistical relationships. For example, survey data can normally be presented in statistical format.

Your research project will likely contain examples of both qualitative and quantitative research.

Evaluating sources

In any research, it is essential to examine and evaluate sources critically. The reliability and authority of your sources are key to obtaining good data and producing useful research findings. Keep in mind that not all sources have information/data or evidence of equal ‘standing’. You should always try to use reputable sources which can be clearly identified, with author, institution (if relevant), year of publication, etc. If quoting from online sources, include the website address (URL) of the specific page, along with the date when you accessed the webpage, so other researchers can verify the accuracy of the source and of your interpretation of data.

Issues of reliability apply both to printed publications and online resources. However, when you decide to use information found on the Internet, you must keep in mind that anyone can become a publisher online. Unlike libraries, where information is hand-selected by information experts, and unlike peer-reviewed academic publications, much of the information available on the Internet is of unknown quality. In addition, millions of websites have been abandoned by their creators, are not updated or reviewed, and contain broken links or undated, unattributed documents. There are also fake websites, created for fraud or satirical purposes. Therefore, it is up to you, the user, to assess the quality of information you find and its suitability for a particular use. Wikipedia is a special research issue, mentioned below.

Assessing online information

You can apply a number of criteria to information you find to help you assess its validity and quality.

Authority: Why should you trust this author/institution/document?

Who is the author – is the name provided? What are their credentials? Are they affiliated with a known organisation? To find out more about the author you can use Google or other search engines, or such social network sites as Facebook or LinkedIn.
Has the information undergone a peer review or publication process? Was it published in an academic journal? Is it posted on the website of a known and well-established organisation?
Does the website provide clear and unambiguous information about the organisation which maintains it? Does it have an ‘About Us’ section and contact details? If the identity of the organisation is ambiguous, you should hesitate to trust the information presented.
Do other known authors in the field cite this author or document?

Accuracy: Is the information correct?

Can you cross-check the information through primary or secondary research or with authoritative sources in the field?
Does the information appear to have a particular political or other bias?
Evaluate the writing style in general. Is it academic? Does it include citations? Does it

present different points of view?

Currency: Is the information up to date?

Check when the information was published and last updated.
Are the links in the document valid? The presence of broken links can tell you a lot about

whether a document is currently maintained.

Purpose and audience

Who do you think are the intended users of this resource? Is it aimed at the general public, at high school students, academics, or someone else?
Consider the appearance of the website. Websites with lots of flashy advertisements, pop- up windows, moving text, etc., are less likely to contain serious academic work.
Why was the page put on the Web? To inform, explain, sell, entice, share, disclose, satire, or parody? Is it a corporate website with a corporate image purpose? The purpose of the web page gives you important clues about whether the information is likely to be suitable for academic use.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia deserves specific reference due to its worldwide popularity as a knowledge resource. Wikipedia is a user-compiled online encyclopaedia covering a vast number of topics, with versions available in a number of languages. It is potentially very useful within the research process: it is user- friendly and easy to access; articles are often clearly written and well researched; it covers many unusual and interesting topics; and the hyperlinks to both internal and external sources for each topic can lead readers to many relevant resources.

However, it is essential for a researcher to treat Wikipedia articles with the same degree of scrutiny as any other online resource. Wikipedia itself warns on its Researching with Wikipedia page that

information in its articles may not be accurate, comprehensive, or unbiased, and provides useful guidelines for researchers. Please read this warning page if you wish to use Wikipedia as a source for your research. For this course, please note that Wikipedia is not an acceptable reference on its own, and if you use it you should demonstrate that you have done the necessary cross-checking.

Primary research: interviews and surveys

While you can accomplish a lot with secondary research, it will often be crucial to speak/communicate (in person, phone, online) to people who were, or are, involved in a particular HD process to get the full story. Printed reports often focus on successes and gloss over difficulties or failures. Think about whether you can gather information through your personal and online (social) networks, including people you know through this online course and the HD course alumni network. They may be able to provide information you need or put you in touch with the right people.

Survey research: questionnaire and interviews

A useful guide to survey research is the Research Methods Knowledge Base, an online textbook introducing social research methodologies by William M.K. Trochim, professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. If you plan to use interviews or surveys in your case study research, we recommend reading this section carefully and following the provided links for more details.

Please begin by reading the introduction to survey research. Survey research includes the use of questionnaires and interviews. Next, please read the page describing these two different types of survey instruments. This page provides examples of different formats of delivery for both interviews and questionnaires. Also interesting is Trochim’s table summarising the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

If you plan to use a questionnaire, have a look at the pages on selecting the survey method and constructing the survey. You will find links to other relevant pages for questionnaires. If the population to be surveyed has Internet access and is computer literate, you should consider delivering your questionnaire online, as this will save a lot of time with data collection and analysis. A number of services offer basic functionality for free, including Survey Monkey.

If you plan to use interviews in your research, please study the page focussed on interviews.

Finally, ethical issues must be considered with any research involving human subjects. In brief, the key issues which you need to be aware of are the principles of:

voluntary participation (people must not be coerced into participation in a research study);
informed consent (participants must be fully informed about all procedures and risks, and

about the use to which data will be put); and

confidentiality and/or anonymity (people must be confident that the information they

provide will not be made available to anyone beyond the scope of the study without their permission, and if necessary, that the participant will remain anonymous, i.e. data collected from a particular participant cannot be associated with that person).

Collecting data (conducting research)

During this phase you will conduct the research following the plans you have devised. An important aspect of this phase is carefully documenting your research. This includes making careful notes of your readings (including full citations for each source), keeping documents well organised so you do not lose data (e.g. returned survey questionnaires), and taking detailed notes during interviews. If your notes from an interview are brief, it may be a good idea to return to them the same day and write up a more detailed version, including your impressions and observations relating to each part of the interview. Don’t count on remembering all these details when you come to the analysis stage. Alternately, you may choose to record interviews – but in this case don’t forget to ask for permission from the interviewee before you begin. If you record interviews, you will also need to build in time later in the research project to transcribe them.

Evaluating and analysing the data

Part of your research paper will involve describing the HD action which you have selected: what actions were taken, what happened, what the outcomes were, and future HD if it is planned. Keep in mind that your work may be instructive and useful for others working in this field elsewhere in the world, and not necessarily only in your organisation.

However, your paper should do more than simply describe the action. You will need to evaluate the information and data you have acquired. This might involve:

Putting it in order (collecting all your data together, identifying and filling gaps, categorising or putting in chronological order as needed)
Looking at it in a historical context (has the implementing environment changed over time)
Comparing and contrasting (within your data, with results from other studies at other

institutions or in other locations)

Evaluating the results of your analysis
Drawing conclusions and formulating recommendations

Reporting on the results (preparing your written paper)

The final stage is communicating the results of your research in a written paper. The details of your paper may vary, depending on the objectives of your paper, but should include:

A title page that includes the title of your paper, your name, your tutor’s name, date of submission, and the word count for your paper.
An executive summary of maximum one page (not more than 500 words, not included in the paper word count). An executive summary is designed for readers who do not have time to read the full document. Therefore, it needs to stand alone, and have sufficient content to ensure that the reader can understand the main findings of your research.
A short description of your selected research methodology.
A description of the HD action in question and/or a review of available academic literature.
An evaluation of the HD action: what were the strong and weak points; in which ways was it

a success, and in which ways did it fail to meet objectives; comparison, where appropriate,

with other relevant cases.

Lessons learned and recommendations based on your research, which may include a

strategy for continuation of the action or a similar action.

A reference list (not included in the paper word count).

Your paper should be 4000 – 5000 words long (if two participants work together, the paper should be 6000 – 8000 words long) excluding only the executive summary and the reference list. This is not a very long paper, so you will need to be careful with selecting relevant information, keeping your descriptions concise, and avoiding repetition. It will likely be useful to start the writing process by making an outline for your paper. Please see Diplo’s Writing Guide (Section 3 of the Online Study Guide in the classroom) for more suggestions on writing your paper. You will need to use citations and references consistently and accurately throughout your paper; please see Section 5 of the Online Study Guide for details on how to use the Harvard citations style.

Writing style checklist

The research paper is a formal academic paper. As such, we ask you to observe some conventions that come with this type of writing:

Please respect the given word limits (4000 – 5000 words for the research paper, including footnotes if used, but excluding the executive summary and the reference list); and no more than one page in 11 point font (approximately 500 words) for the executive summary.
Be aware that all papers will be checked for plagiarism. If your paper contains plagiarism you will be asked to re-write it. Please review Diplo’s Plagiarism Guidelines (section 4 of the Online Study Guide) to ensure you do not accidentally plagiarise.
Do not use first person; use third person (e.g. do not use ‘I think…’, ‘I believe…’ ‘I observed…’ but rather ‘Available resources support the conclusion that…’, ‘Evidence supports the observation that…’ etc.)
Take care with grammar, spelling and punctuation. We realise that most course participants are not native English speakers. The paper does not need to be written in perfect English, however, it must be easily comprehensible for a wide audience of both native and non- native English speakers. Please use the tools available in Word to help you with spelling, for example. If you are not confident about English grammar, we recommend asking a colleague or friend to read the paper and point out where it may be difficult to understand. You may also ask a friend or colleague to help you with editing. Note that your research tutor cannot assist with editing (but may point out if more attention to language is needed). These points are equally relevant to a paper written in French.
Use effective formatting. Helpful titles and subtitles can divide your paper into logical sections and assist the reader with understanding and following your argument.
Please use Diplo’s version of the Harvard citations style, as outlined in Diplo’s Citations Guide (section 5 of the Online Study Guide). You may want to check out software to help with this; see section 5.2 of the Online Study Guide.
With the Harvard citations style, references are included in the text rather than as footnotes. If you decide to use informational footnotes (i.e. to provide extra information that does not fit well into the body of your paper) please be aware that these are included in the word count. We recommend including all necessary information in the body of your paper rather than footnotes, and if information is not strictly needed, you may leave it out altogether.