Webinar | Introducing the New Inter-Agency Data Protection and Information Sharing Protocol Template for Child Protection Case Management in Humanitarian Action

The Alliance Case Management Task Force is excited to officially launch and introduce child protection case management practitioners in humanitarian settings to the new global inter-agency data protection and information sharing template (DPISP) and the accompanying Guidance Note on Data Protection and Information Sharing in Humanitarian Settings including Specific Considerations for Settings with Refugees.

Initiated by the CPIMS+ Steering Committee in 2020, UNHCR and UNICEF, as members of the Information Management for Case Management (IM4CM) Activity Group under the global Case Management Task Force (CMTF), set out to jointly clarify when partners should use CPIMS+ or proGres, UNHCR's institutional tool for information management.  Child protection case management practitioners and agencies were experiencing confusion and tensions about which tool to use, when to use a particular tool, how and when to share information and under what circumstances not to share. This created barriers to implementing quality case management and coordination, and delayed information sharing for service provision.  

UNHCR and UNICEF, with the support of the CPIMS+ Steering Committee member agencies, jointly conducted 8 inter-agency country consultations. The key finding was that while the use of specific digital information management systems could be clarified, this was the 'tip of the iceberg'. The real issue reported was a lack of clarity around information management for case management (IM4CM) itself, and in particular the use of data protection impact assessments (DPIA) and information sharing protocols (ISP). There was confusion about how inter-agency agreements and procedures for sharing personal and sensitive non-personal data were established and ethically managed. Further, the issue was not limited to refugee settings or specifically related to information sharing with UNHCR, but more broadly in humanitarian settings including settings with refugees.

An intensive two-year process was therefore undertaken within the CMTF  to develop an inter-agency guidance note clarifying what IM4CM  entails, the required tools and procedures, as well as a new global standard template for the inter-agency data protection and information sharing protocol (DPISP), and a standard template for data protection impact assessments (forthcoming).

The webinar will provide an overview of two new key tools for child protection practitioners in the field and in coordination roles.

1. The Guidance Note: which outlines the key standards and principles, processes and tools available to apply good practices for data protection and information-sharing when implementing child protection case management in humanitarian settings, including specific considerations in relation to the UNHCR Best Interests Procedure (BIP) in settings with refugees.
2. The new DPISP template: which provides actors with a standard template for contextualisation, and clarifies the roles, responsibilities and process for actors to coordinate the development, signature and implementation of safe, secure and ethical information sharing between service providers.