Mitigating Lawless African ActsProblem Definition and Intervention Description

Boko Haram is a militant Islamist organization that it terrorizing large portions of Nigeria, since at least 2011 (Uhrmacher and Sheridan, 2106). Their methods are fairly typical of terrorists. These include suicide bombings, kidnappings, and attacks on everyday civilians. The crux of their methodology is that they are targeting civilians since they do not have the means to battle the largely Christian government via conventional warfare. Therefore, they have resorted to terrorist attacks to cause residents to flee and to attempt to gain territory in such a manner.

The principle means of intervening in this activity is to aid the Christian government of Nigeria with forces that are opposed to terrorism. This aid will include those marshaled and containing troops from the United States, Western Europe, and the United Nations in general. It is critical to supply the Nigerian government with the supplies and manpower to counteract the terrorist efforts of Boko Haram. These resources will include increasing surveillance of public places, and systematically attempting to regain territory which Boko Haram has captured.

Logic Model or Logframe

The logic model for this particular case study will be predicated on determining which counter-terrorist methods are the most effective for regaining territory taken by Boko Haram. The study will utilize a bevy of counterterrorist methods for achieving this objective, and systematically study them and their outcomes to learn which is the most worthy of long-term support. These measures will include surveillance methods pertaining to typical communication channels, including those based on social media, conventional media, telephone records and text messaging. It is integral to gain the support of the Nigerian government in this endeavor in order to facilitate these measures.

Development of Indicators

The indicators for this case study are critical to its success,...

Developing indicators will require the government to engage in highly specific monitoring of the foregoing methods of communication. It is necessary for the government to determine the correlation between the monitoring of phone records (for both texts and conventional calls) and terrorist activities. It is prudent for it to initiate this process by focusing on metadata -- call records, frequently used numbers, duration of calls, etc. These indicators also need to extend to analysis of social media including the sites most commonly leveraged in Nigeria. Also the government should analyze any sort of correlation between conventional media channels such as the radio or television programming and any sort of terrorist activity.
Data Collection Strategy

The strategy for collecting data will be multifold. The most readily available data will be that accessed online in the way of social media postings and other communication pertaining to any sort of terrorist activity. It is necessary to quantify the number of sites or users linked with terrorist activity -- which will yield quantitative analysis pertaining to pervasive (Burke, 2016). Additionally, it is important to also collect qualitative data regarding the nature and severity of online postings related to terrorist attacks in any way. Perhaps the most important data collection activity will be that which requires governmental involvement -- specifically call records and those pertaining to text methods. By obtaining government permission, the researchers should be able to monitor this information for both qualitative and quantitative data to determine any links between phone users and terrorist activities. This data can be counterposed with that from online activity to determine the relationship between this communication and terrorism involving Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Evaluation Design, Needs Assessment, or Formative or Summative Impact Evaluation…