SenseMaker® Study for Mapping Community Resilience, Essential Services, Socio-Economic and Social-Cohesion , UNDP Afghanistan

SenseMaker® Study for Mapping Community Resilience, Essential Services, Socio-Economic and Social-Cohesion

Afghanistan's ongoing economic collapse following the Taliban takeover contributed significantly to the humanitarian crisis, including COVID-19, the impacts of drought and floods, and rapidly increasing poverty and food insecurity. The operational and programmatic environment for development organizations has undergone major change as a result of the Taliban's return to power. To lessen the need for humanitarian relief and stop subsequent reversals in development, especially for women and vulnerable populations, it is essential to save livelihoods. Additionally, these difficulties put the economy, social cohesion, and human security in danger, and they might even fuel extremism and violence. 

UNDP has been working in Afghanistan for the past 50 years, addressing issues like gender equality, governance, health, livelihoods, and the rule of law. Collaborating closely with other UN organizations, UNDP aims to help Afghanistan achieve peace, prosperity, and sustainability in line with the SDGs. Recognizing the limitations of a one-size-fits-all or fragmented approach, UNDP emphasizes an integrated, flexible, and people-centered strategy. Their flagship crisis response program, ABADEI, focuses on saving livelihoods and building community resilience. Starting in specific regions and gradually expanding, the program utilizes cash-based responses to address vulnerabilities and rehabilitate assets. UNDP's decentralized regional branch offices implement the strategy, supporting local communities in their recovery and resilience efforts while continuing existing interventions.

UNDP plans to utilize SenseMaker® to enhance quantitative evaluation of resilience, socioeconomic factors, and social cohesion. The tool will identify narrative-based trends in how people are coping with and learning from crises post-August 2021, linked to community resilience and communication. Online data collection using SenseMaker® will be tested through a managed network of incentivized respondents, supporting longitudinal research in the early stages of the ABADEI program. SenseMaker® allows respondents to express their personal meanings and experiences within a quantitative framework, enabling real-time analysis to identify shared patterns. These patterns complement conventional methods, providing valuable insights into the data collected.

Centre for Research and Development (CRD) and Aerc Afghan Consultancy (AERC) have jointly been awarded by UNDP Afghanistan the task of conducting the survey. Dr. Md Mokhlesur Rahman, the lead consultant and CEO of CRD, is  leading the conduction of the survey.