This blog will introduce the fundamental concepts of Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) and why we have chosen to use this method to help identify complex trends in both the social and technical factors that lead to the failure of rural water supply schemes.
At first CBR appears to be quite complex, but actually it is effectively the same methodology that humans use to solve problems – by experience and logic. I will ease you gently into the world of CBR by explaining how I began to work with it and how it can be applied to our research here.
On a dry afternoon in 2008 Arthur Zoungagde aka The Genius, a native of the small town of Obo in the Southeastern tip of Central African Republic (CAR), found a microphone on the ground. He picked it up, brushed off the dust and instinctively spoke into it. To his surprise, he heard his own voice a few meters away coming out of an abandoned radio receiver.
Some of DRC’s biggest operations are based in Mogadishu involving beneficiaries who have lost their livelihood and became Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mogadishu due to the droughts in 2011. It was my first visit to Mogadishu with this particular project so we decided for security reasons to limit the trip to a week and spend this time familiarizing with the complex Cash Relief project and identify other suitable projects for the SMS feedback.
Who knew being innovative would be so hard? Surely you just come up with a good idea, the HIF will give you the money and you implement it? The problem with innovation is that no one has done it before, so there are not the usual lessons learned, evaluations, how-to guides and checklists to follow. We are literally trying something for the first time, which means the process is one massive learning curve.
The problem we begin our project with is a UNHCR identified gap in the ‘traditional’ approach to refugee protection. Through external evaluation and performance against internal indicators, UNHCR has identified that children’s specific protection concerns are not being sufficiently ‘mainstreamed’ into its core protection work.
After many long discussions, strenuous consensus building and lots and lots of work, I have the pleasure of introducing you to our baby: the CAR Humanitarian Map: http://internews-car.ushahidi.com/.
Our research team, from Edinburgh University, have been working since February on analysing failure in water supply systems in Sierra Leone. Before we arrived in Sierra Leone we were already aware that this country had significant problems. Various NGOs and research groups had already indicated that the failures of the water supply systems in Sierra Leone were as high as 65%. Providing water supplies, in particular handpump wells, is a typical response of many Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), when attempting to reduce widespread problems related to health.
In my previous post, I reported on the completion of the final specification, Stage 3. We’ve now moved on to the prototype software build, stage 4 out of 5 development stages.
