Bringing technology and humanitarian values together: A framework to design and assess humanitarian information systems

Designing information systems (IS) in support of humanitarian work has been a challenge widely pursued for decades. However, one aspect that has been undervalued within systems design is the role of the underpinning humanitarian values and culture as part of system effectiveness. Further, it remains understudied how we might incorporate those values into the information system design process. We address both these aspects by 1) analyzing humanitarian values of effectiveness as they impact information systems design, and 2) incorporating humanitarian values as part of the design criteria. In this paper, we present the idea that the “maturity” of an IS design to be effective for the humanitarian context is assessed by how well it incorporates humanitarian values. Therefore, we move away from a product-centered design towards an approach, which features the socio-technical relationship. We present a maturity matrix, which aims to translate and communicate humanitarian effectiveness into the design and development terminology used by technology designers. This matrix is housed within a participatory framework that allows for the development of trust and shared understanding between these two domains. The framework serves as a road-map for designers and humanitarian agencies to adapt the IS design and development process to better accommodate the IS needs of the humanitarian mission, its values, and culture.