Voicing Concern: Surveying People's Priorities in Violent Settings

Introduction At the initiative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) will take place in May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey. A central objective of the process is to ‘redefine how the global community delivers for the world’s most vulnerable people’ living in areas impacted by armed conflict and disasters (WHS, 2015, p. 1). With a view to giving affected people a greater voice in these discussions, the WHS secretariat contracted the Small Arms Survey to carry out a review of population-based surveys on the needs of people in areas affected by armed conflict (UNDP, 2015). While few surveys have been undertaken in insecure environments to inquire specifically about people’s perceptions of their priorities, needs, or concerns, several institutions with various mandates and objectives have carried out relevant studies. This Issue Brief analyses people’s perceived priorities and needs in situations of armed conflict or high levels of insecurity. It is based on 43 recently completed population-based surveys, during which respondents were asked to either identify or rank the general issues about which they felt most concerned. Although not fully representative of all recent conflicts and insecure environments, the data spans three regions: Africa (8 countries), Asia (2 countries), and Latin America and the Caribbean (16 countries). While the focus of the analysis is on countries affected by armed conflict in the traditional sense, it also includes a number of countries—primarily from the latter region—that are experiencing high rates of other types of violence (such as homicides) for comparative purposes. The study aims to contribute to a better understanding of priorities in situations of armed conflict or highlevel insecurity by focusing on the perceptions of the local populations themselves. Specifically, it addresses the following questions: