Annual report 2005-06
Message from the ALNAP Chair and the Head of the ALNAP Secretariat
This year, ALNAP published 3 different books aimed at improving learning and practice amongst different stakeholder groups in the humanitarian community. The Guide on Protection provides guidance to field staff on the kind of actions they can undertake to help bring about better protection to people at risk of war and disaster. The Guide on Evaluating Humanitarian Action gives practical support to evaluators and agency staff in using OECD DAC criteria in their evaluations and the Review of Humanitarian Action provides the humanitarian system with a basis for reflecting on the key issues identified by evaluations in 2004. Following the Kashmir earthquake, ALNAP also published two briefing papers with the ProVention Consortium, both of which aimed to inform decision makers of the lessons that had been learned from similar emergencies.
Each publication is targeted at a specific audience but all have a similar aim – to help humanitarian practitioners in their work by learning from past experiences, testing new approaches in the field where possible and making products available in practical formats. There has been a particular interest in our briefing papers and we remain committed to producing helpful materials immediately after an event to influence humanitarian response as it happens. The evaluative reports data base (ERD) now contains over 600 evaluative reports and provides an increasingly comprehensive source of evidence from which to capture experiences and make them accessible to relevant stakeholders. An increasing proportion of evaluation reports that are submitted to the ERD are for public access and we believe this reflects a welcome trend for more openness and transparency among humanitarian agencies in general.
We are delighted to welcome our 5 new Full Member organisations and are sure that the experiences they will bring to the table will be of great value. As ALNAP continues its strategy of planned growth, the network is becoming a truly system-wide initiative. This takes us closer to realising the original ALNAP Vision. The value of such a comprehensive membership base is clear to see, and we are delighted that ALNAP has been able to effectively spearhead the formation of the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC), which has come together so effectively to carry out the most comprehensive evaluation since the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda. This not only shows that is there a willingness for the humanitarian system to work together, learn together and share the duty of being accountable and improving performance; it also demonstrates that ALNAP can provide the system with a practical and effective platform for undertaking joint initiatives of this size and scope.
As a result of the TEC’s findings, it is likely that the humanitarian community will face major challenges in making humanitarian action more equitable, consistent and effective in the future. We look forward next year to facilitating discussion and take-up of the findings and recommendations and ultimately providing a better service to the most vulnerable.
Eleanor Monbiot, Chair
John Mitchell, Head of ALNAP Secretariat
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