International humanitarian organizations often find themselves working with local communities in situations. In these contexts, one of the first assignments is to understand the local conditions (Sphere, 2018, p. 29). However, obtaining information about the local circumstances is not be easy, as the available resources in international-scale humanitarian knowledge platforms may not be applicable to small-scale assessments. This means that, despite the advances of humanitarian knowledge systems, there are still gaps that can prevent the efficient exchange of information between local and international stakeholders (IFRC, 2020, p. 12).
The thesis explores these gaps through three interconnected barriers: institutional design bias, thematic misalignment, and language barriers. The methodology is based on the interpolation of three international humanitarian knowledge platforms (the Humanitarian Library, ReliefWeb and the Shelter Cluster library), and the content that is produced by three local NGOs (SEEDS India, The Muungano alliance and TECHO Peru). In addition, the institutional overlaps and collaboration opportunities are analyzed to further integrate into the practical recommendations. In essence, this thesis makes an original contribution by proposing an alignment-based analytical framework to assess structural compatibility between local knowledge producers and international humanitarian knowledge platforms.
The results revealed that institutional design bias represents a barrier, as the degree of openness of the submission process restricts the participation of local stakeholders. Secondly, thematic misalignment is not necessarily a gap, as the fields of study are highly compatible despite the difference in audiences. Finally, language barriers are not essentially one of the main divides, as many local organizations have adopted English as their working languages. Nonetheless, in the case of NGOs that do not work in English, it becomes an obstacle for efficient exchange.
This analysis demonstrates that the humanitarian knowledge sector presents institutional overlaps, in the sense that the role and mandates of many organizations cover the same scope. Nonetheless, there is also constant collaboration, which compensates certain gaps. By acknowledging the positive existing efforts and the opportunities for improvement, this thesis contributes to ongoing debates on localization, inclusivity, and governance in humanitarian knowledge management.
