2025/03/24 by Dennis Uche Ashara · 1 voice
Health Professions · #Health and Conflict Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/18335330.2025.2481638
openalex publication_date 2025/03/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
As humanitarian crises become more complex, intelligence can contribute to effective action. An emerging subfield of intelligence studies and practice, humanitarian intelligence (HI) is the systematic gathering, analysis, and use of data to assist crisis management and decision-making. While HI is increasingly recognized for its interventionist components, its utility for pre-emptive action has been under-studied. This article argues that better use of HI would enhance the capabilities of crisis management agencies to assist vulnerable people before as well as after a crisis has developed. The study draws on field-based research in Borno State, Nigeria, an area that has been at the centre of a long-running humanitarian crisis resulting from the Boko Haram insurgency, counter-insurgency operations, and related socio-economic disturbance. The study, using qualitative methods, finds that management of the crisis has been impeded by poor coordination, resource allocation, and decision-making, and that these weaknesses are exacerbated by poor knowledge of the peculiarities of the affected populations and the crisis context. The article argues that, in this case study and beyond, HI has potential for pre-empting or slowing crisis development through the provision of effective early warning systems and better appreciation of the geographic terrain of disaster-prone locations.