ALDO A. BENINI

http://aldo-benini.org/abenini [ at ] starpower [ dot ] net

SUMMARYOver twenty-five years in assistance for victims of war (with the International Committee of theRed Cross), management of large-scale rural development, and in research, funding, andconsultancy for partnerships in development and humanitarian aid. 6 years in South Asia, 4 yearsin Africa, 7 years in Europe. Short missions in the Middle East. Advanced survey design, dataanalysis and modeling, particularly in the humanitarian and poverty alleviation fields. Swisscitizen, based in Washington DC.

EDUCATION1979 Ph.D.: Social Sciences, University of Bielefeld, Germany(Community Development in A Multi-Ethnic Society, based on field research in West Africa)

WORK

Consultancies

1996 to current

Cluster 1 : Humanitarian data analysis· Conceptual work and data analysis in human security, relief logistics, rapid needs assessments,

Humanitarian Information Centers, decision support (see publications)

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· Coordinating social science inputs for the Global Landmine Survey, a multi-country survey ofthe socio-economic impacts of explosive remnants of war. Protocols, training and analysistemplates. Training, data analysis, reporting in eight countries

· Analyzing a large database on the correlates of violence in Cambodia, for the Peace ResearchInstitute of Oslo, Norway. Analyzing protection activity 2004-2012 data for the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

· Rapid needs assessment data management and analysis templates, methodology of needsmeasurements, for the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), Geneva

· Humanitarian simulations, e.g. population distribution in Syria, 2015· Short missions for, among others, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe, Small Arms Survey and the ICRC, in the Sudan, Congo, Bosnia,Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor

Cluster 2 : Rural development· Community empowerment and organizations of the poor: focus on Bangladesh, minor work in

Cambodia, Tanzania and Nepal· Complex statistical analysis of large microfinance database· Multi-method research into adult literacy· Analysis of change in gender role attitudes in 900+ villages in Bangladesh· NGO impact surveys, monitoring system reform, studies on social organization, data

management training· Lutheran World Federation, RDRS Bangladesh, Friends in Village Development Bangladesh,

Swiss Red Cross, the UK Department of International Development, and the German EED(Church Development Service)

California Polytechnic State University (Social Sciences Department, San Luis Obispo)

1995 - 1998 Visiting Research Scientist

· Projects on computer simulation for relief agencies, biological hazards (Ebola virus),organizations of poor people, mechanisms of ethnic violence, Switzerland

· Courses on Ethnic Relations in World Perspective· Authored "Modern Switzerland", a volume in the McGraw-Hill Comparative Societies Series

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

2015 Consultant, Economic Security Unit2013-2014 Consultant, Protection Division1998 Evaluator, earthquake response, Afghanistan1993-1994 Specialist dissemination Red Cross principles, South Africa1992-1993 Operational Desk, West Africa, headquarters1990-1991 Team leader Sudan, Iraq, Mali1987-1989 Delegate, Pakistan and Afghanistan

· Econometric analysis of conflictuality and ICRC protection activities in 99 countries, 2004-12

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· Organized humanitarian law and Red Cross information campaigns during critical transition inSouth Africa

· Held out one year inside besieged town, Sudan, developed computer scenarios for fooddistribution strategy

· Identified casualty evacuation routes from deep inside Afghanistan, negotiated access and setup first cross-border post

Lutheran World Federation(apex organization of Lutheran churches worldwide)

1983-1986 Program Coordinator, rural development program, Bangladesh

· Coordinated multi-sector program (small-farmer support, health care, public works) totalingover 1,700 staff working with the poorest segments of a 7 million population

· Adapted systems for planning, budgeting and monitoring· Initiated structural change in organization after 10 years of additive growth. Continuing

cooperation with successor organization “RDRS Bangladesh” since 1997

Church Development Service (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst - EED)(funding agency of the German Protestant churches)

1987, 1997 Consultant for financial instruments, internal reorganization1979 - 1983 Sector Head for South Asia and the Middle East

· Helped develop new instruments of financial cooperation· Drafted country and sector guidelines, participated in project evaluations

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Countries and regions with significant work and life experience:Switzerland, Germany - South Africa, Sudan, West Africa - Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh -USA

Languages:English, German, French: Fluent in speech and writing. Publications in EnglishBengali: Advanced conversational

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PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS

Books and book-length reports

2017 (With several others:)“The Use of Expert Judgment in Humanitarian Analysis – Theory, Methods,Applications”. Geneva, Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS).

2013 (With several others:)"Personal skills and social action - Adult literacy in the FIVDB strategy". Sylhet:Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB)

2006 “A Shelter for the Poor. The long-term viability of NGO-supported localassociations”. Rangpur, RDRS Bangladesh and North Bengal Institute

1998 “Modern Switzerland”, New York, McGraw-Hill

1980 “Community Development in a Multi-Ethnic Society: The Upper River Division ofThe Gambia, West Africa”, Saarbrücken - Fort Lauderdale

Peer-reviewed articles

2010 (With several others:)Managing humanitarian information in Iraq. In: Carlton-Ford, S. and M. G. Ender(ed.). The Routledge Handbook of War and Society. London and New York,Routledge

2009 (With several others:)“Survivor Needs or Logistical Convenience? Factors shaping decisions to deliverrelief to earthquake-affected communities, Pakistan 2005-06”, Disasters, January

2008 (With Taylor Owen and Håvard Rue:)“A Semi-Parametric Spatial Regression Approach to Post-War Human Security:Cambodia, 2002-2004”. Oslo, Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW),International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), Asian Journal ofCriminology, September

2007 "A Monitoring System for Numerous Local Organizations of Poor People – ACase from Bangladesh", The Electronic Journal of Information Systems inDeveloping Countries, July

2007 (With Charles E. Conley:)“Rapid Humanitarian Assessments and Rationality: A Value-of-Information Studyof a Recent Assessment in Iraq”, Disasters, March

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2004 (With Lawrence Moulton:)“Civilian Victims in an Asymmetrical Conflict: Operation Enduring Freedom,Afghanistan”, Journal of Peace Research, July

2003 (With several others:)“Integration of Different Data Bodies for Humanitarian Decision Support: AnExample from Mine Action”, Disasters, December

2003 (Principal author: Lawrence Moulton)“Community-level risk factors for numbers of landmine victims in Chad andThailand”, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

2002 (With Lawrence Moulton and Charles Conley)“Landmines and Local Community Adaptation”, Journal of Contingencies andCrisis Management, June

1999 (With Janet Benini:)“Computer Simulation of Humanitarian Scenarios, Tools for Training and FieldManagement in Relief Agencies”, International Journal of Public Administration

1999 "Network Without Center? - A Case Study of an Organizational NetworkResponding to an Earthquake", Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management,March

1998 (With Anthony Minnaar and Sam Pretorius:)“Persistent Collective Violence and Early Warning Systems: The Case ofKwaZulu-Natal, South Africa”, Armed Forces and Society, August

1997 “Uncertainty and Information Flow in Humanitarian Agencies”, Disasters,December

1996 (With Janet Benini:)“Ebola Virus: From Medical Emergency to Complex Disaster?”, Journal ofContingencies and Crisis Management, March

1993 "Simulation of the Effectiveness of Protection and Assistance for Victims ofArmed Conflict: An Example from Mali, West Africa", Oxford: Journal ofContingencies and Crisis Management, December

1992 "Armed Conflict, Access to Markets and Food Crisis Warning: A Note from Mali",London: Disasters, September

1991 "Computer Simulation as a Means of Dialogue between Relief Agencies and LocalCommittees", London: Disasters, December

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Others

2019 “Priorities and preferences in humanitarian needs assessments - Their measurementby rating and ranking methods”. Geneva, Okular Analytics.

2018 “Subjective Measures in Humanitarian Analysis”. Geneva, ACAPS.

2018 (With Sean Ng)“A new index of refugee protection - Using data on Rohingya camps from theNPM Bangladesh Site Assessment (Round 9, March 2018)”. Geneva and Cox’sBazaar.

2017 “Can severity profiles offer an alternative to persons-in-need estimates? Anexperiment with data from Syria”. Geneva, ACAPS.

2016 “Severity measures in humanitarian needs assessments - Purpose, measurement,integration”. Geneva, ACAPS.

2016 (With Patrice Chataigner, Nadia Noumri, Leonie Tax, Michael Wilkins)“Information gaps in multiple needs assessments in disaster and conflict areas.With guidelines for their measurement, using the Nepal 2015 earthquakeassessment registry”. Geneva, ACAPS.

2016 “Persistence of severity patterns over time. A case study of two estimates inNepal”. Geneva, ACAPS.

2015 “The use of Data Envelopment Analysis to calculate priority scores in needsassessments”. Geneva, ACAPS.

2015 "Moderate need, acute need. Valid categories for humanitarian needs assessment?Evidence from a recent needs assessment in Syria". Geneva and Beirut, ACAPSand MapAction.

2015 (With Mohammed Shikh Aiyob, Patrice Chataigner, and Benoît Munsch:)"Confidence in Needs Assessment Data. The use of confidence ratings in the SyriaMulti-Sectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA)". Geneva and Beirut, ACAPS andMapAction.

2014 (With Md. Reazul Karim, Md. Ashraf Ali and S.M. Fakrul Basher:)"I myself went to see the Chairman! - Change in gender role attitudes in a waterand sanitation project in northern Bangladesh. An analysis of DASCOH's GenderAnalytical Framework data, 2011 - 2014." Rajshahi and Sunamganj, Bangladesh,Development Association for Self-reliance, Communication and Health(DASCOH).

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2014 (with Patrice Chataigner:)"Composite measures of local disaster impact - Lessons from Typhoon Yolanda,Philippines". Note for the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), Geneva, witha spreadsheet-based demo workbook.

2013 "Severity and priority - Their measurement in rapid needs assessments".Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), Geneva, with Stata simulation files.

2013 "How to approach a dataset - Part 1: Data preparation" and "Part 2: Analysis".Note for the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), Geneva, with spreadsheet-based demo workbooks.

2013 (With Md. Reazul Karim, Md. Ashraf Ali and S.M. Fakrul Basher:)"Poverty or Location? Their respective influence on water and sanitation in aDASCOH working area in northern Bangladesh". Rajshahi and Sunamganj,Bangladesh, Development Association for Self-reliance, Communication andHealth (DASCOH).

2012 "A computer simulation of needs assessments in disasters. The impact of samplesize, logistical difficulty and measurement error". Washington DC., withspreadsheet-based simulation file.

2012 “Composite measures. Their use in rapid needs assessments - Conceptualbackground and technical guidance". Note for the Assessment Capacities Project(ACAPS), Geneva, with spreadsheet-based demo workbook.

2012 “A template for managing data in needs assessments” and "Data analysis in needsassessments", Notes for the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), Geneva,with spreadsheet-based template and demo

2012 (With Wasima Samad Chowdhury:)"It takes a village to put a child through school - Can community literacy substitutefor parental literacy?", Sylhet, Friends in Village Development Bangladesh(FIVDB)

2011 (With Paul von Bünau, Mozammel Haque and Bhabatosh Nath:)"RDRS and the Poor: Microfinance as Partnership. Twenty years of microfinancein RDRS Bangladesh", Dhaka and Rangpur, RDRS Bangladesh and North BengalInstitute

2010 “Text Analysis under Time Pressure. Tools for humanitarian and developmentworkers”, Technical paper with MS Excel macros

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2009 "Tracking violence in Timor-Leste: A sample of emergency room data, 2006–08"[Timor-Leste Armed Violence Assessment (TLAVA) Issue Brief Number 4,October 2009], Small Arms Survey and ActionAid

2009 (With Bhabatosh Nath:)"Knowledge Management in an Organization of the Poor. The Thetrai UnionFederation in northern Bangladesh", Dhaka and Washington DC, RDRSBangladesh

2009 “Is Empowerment Efficient? A Data Envelopment Analysis of 260 LocalAssociations in Bangladesh”, Rangpur, RDRS Bangladesh and North BengalInstitute

2008 “Efficient linking of lists in humanitarian data management”, Technical note

2008 “Does Empowerment Work? Underlying concepts and the experience of twocommunity empowerment programs in Cambodia and Tanzania”, Washington DC(a study for the Lutheran World Federation)

2007 (With several others:)“Resilience and Vulnerability in Long-Term NGO Clients. Findings from an RDRSBangladesh panel survey”. Rangpur, RDRS Bangladesh and North Bengal Institute

2006 (With several others:)“Survivor Needs or Logistical Convenience? – Factors shaping decisions to deliverrelief to earthquake-affected communities, Pakistan 2005-06”. Navigating Post-Conflict Environments series. Washington DC, Vietnam Veterans of AmericaFoundation

2006 (With several others:)“Landmine Impact Survey. Republic of Armenia”. Report, Vietnam Veterans ofAmerica Foundation (VVAF), Washington DC

Other Landmine Impact Survey involvements (year report published, some by theSurvey Action Center, Takoma Park MD, and country):

2005 Vietnam *2004 Azerbaijan2004 Bosnia and Herzegovina *2004 Lebanon *2003 Somaliland (Somalia) *2002 Thailand *2001 Chad *2000 Yemen *2000 Kosovo *

(* = with in-country missions)

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2005 (With Jasim Uddin Ferdous:)“The Incomes and Participant Careers of the Poor. Insights from the RDRSBangladesh 2003 Impact Survey”. Rangpur and Dhaka, RDRS Bangladesh

2005 “Putting the Pieces Together: Follow-up of persons with disabilities using multipleindicators”. Hanoi, VVAF Bach Mai Hospital, Research note, January

2004 (With Charles Conley:)“Data Fusion for Mine Action Decision Support: An Example from Lebanon”.Journal of Mine Action, 8/2. http://maic.jmu.edu/ journal/8.2/rd/benini.htm,November

2004 (With Taylor Owen:)“Correlates of Violence: Modeling Human Security in Post Conflict Cambodia”.Paper presented at the Fifth Pan-European International Relations Conference, TheHague, September 9-11, 2004

2003 "Landmines, War and Victim Dynamics. Contamination Assessment inAfghanistan". Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Washington DC

2003 (With Andrew Ross:)“Humanitarian Information Center for Iraq: Results of the Rapid AssessmentProcess (RAP)”, Report for the UN Office for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs, Amman, October

2002 (With several others:)“Decision Support for Humanitarian Mine Action”, Vietnam Veterans of AmericaFoundation, Washington DC, November

2001 Chapter 2 “Assessing the impact of mine contamination”, in: UNDP/ GenevaInternational Centre for Humanitarian Demining, “A Study of Socio-EconomicApproaches to Mine Action”, Geneva, March 2001

1999 “Bright Pattern on Dark Cloth. RDRS' Self-Evaluation”, RDRS Bangladesh,Dhaka and Washington DC

1997 (With Janet Benini:)“Federations: A Shelter for the Poor?” A report for RDRS Bangladesh, December

1996 (With Mark Duffield and others:)“OLS - Operation Lifeline Sudan - A Review”, United Nations, Department ofHumanitarian Affairs, Geneva

1994 “Disseminating the International Humanitarian Law to the Armed Forces in SouthAfrica”, Chapter 1 in: “Public International Law and the SA Defence Act”,Pretoria

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1994 (With Janet Benini:)“The Slime Disaster: A South Africa Experience”, United Nations Department ofHumanitarian Affairs: DHA News, May/August

KEYWORDSPh.D. sociology

Training Research Survey design Dataanalysis Computer simulation StatisticsMonitoring, evaluation

Word, Excel, STATA (advanced)

Community development Humanitarian actionHumanitarian information management RefugeesArmed conflict Landmines United NationsRed Cross Decision support systems

Public speech Conceptual and analytical abilityFluent in English, German, and French

Over twenty-five years’ experience in Europe, Asia,Africa, USA Cultural diversity.

Cover photo: Decoration at a rice cake festival in Sylhet, Bangladesh, February 2013