Haiti Earthquake 2010 - Evaluative resources

• Full report

This article analyses the initial months of the humanitarian response to the earthquake, as well as the subsequent reconstruction plan. The article will form part of the forthcoming Intermon report “La realidad de la ayuda” (The reality of aid).

• Terms of reference

Objectives: The main objective of this exercise will be to use our experience in Haiti to help CARE identify shortcomings, recognize good practices, and improve upon CARE's humanitarian policy framework and how CARE International approaches emergency response at a global organizational level in a way that we can apply these lessons to
large-scale humanitarian crises we may face in the future.

Similar to the last organization-wide review undertaken for the 2004 tsunami, it is anticipated that the Haiti Earthquake Reflections Workshop will review:

1. Roles & relationships: Clarify roles and responsibilities, accountability, coordination, and management oversight.
2. How successful we were at getting the right people at the right time, including deployment modalities,staffing transitions, etc.
3. Programme design and absorptive capacity. Emergency preparedness planning, capacity assessments,strategic planning and transition from relief to development
4. Performance in core sectors (food security, shelter and/or WASH) and integration of cross-cutting issues(gender, DRR, etc.) given that CARE's response needs to be based not only on needs but also on itstechnical and absorptive capacity
5. How effectively was the transition managed between successive phases (e.g. relief to recovery)
6. Effectiveness of programme support, humanitarian accountability, fundraising, and media and communications – all of which influence the quality and timelines of an emergency response

Methodology: Workshop: 25 to 35 full-time participants with representation at a managerial and technical level from CARE Haiti, CARE International Members, various functional units of the Lead Member (CARE USA), and the CARE Emergency Response Working Group

Contact: Jock Baker, baker@careinternational.org, and Sarah Ralston, sralston@care.org

• Full report

• Full report

The evaluation assessed the achievements, quality and overall impact of the ACT humanitarian response to the Haiti emergency based on the following objectives:

• Assess the achievement of results of the Haiti ACT appeal in contributing to improving the recovery of the most vulnerable groups impacted by the earthquake and cholera.
• Establish the performance of the Haiti ACT appeal in the context of management, coordination, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, visibility, communication and dissemination of information and partnership with local actors.
• Determine if and how the ACT response supported the local structures (state, local NGOs, churches) to be better prepared to respond to any disaster.

The evaluation scope covered achievements, program design, implementation approaches, ACT policies, coordination and humanitarian principles and capacities for implementation.

• Full report

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the south of Haiti on January 12th 2010 triggered the largest humanitarian response since the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. Hundreds of international agencies launched emergency responses, and local organisations, the Haitian diaspora, the private sector and many thousands of individuals also poured energy, money and time into finding ways to help.
The earthquake was unfortunately not the only serious emergency to strike Haiti in 2010. The outbreak of cholera in the town of St Marc on October 18th 2010 brought a new, highly infectious and deadly disease to a country with weak sanitation and health systems, and no knowledge or understanding of this illness. The response of communication actors from the first hours was essential to the survival of potentially thousands of people, whose ability to recognise symptoms and take prompt action was literally the difference between life and death.
This paper attempts to capture some of the communication work implemented by a whole range of partners, and to identify what was delivered from the perspectives of those affected by these two major but very different emergencies. The purpose of this exercise is to inform the continuing response in Haiti and to provide practical case studies and analysis of best practice models that may be useful elsewhere.

• Full report
• Annex

Objectives and scope: 

The evaluation aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the activities implemented by the SHO organisations5 in 2010 and to assess their results. The individual organisations are either part of an international network organisation (e.g. Oxfam Novib) or channel all or some of their contributions to an international organisation. This is for instance the case for UNICEF Nederland, which channels its entire financial contribution to UNICEF Headquarters in New York. The Netherlands Red Cross has channelled some of its contribution through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and part through self-implementation. This implies that these two SHO organisations have been contributing to very large programmes implemented by these international organisations and their partners in the field. Other SHO organisations provide direct support either through self-implementation or in collaboration with national implementing counterparts. The evaluation has taken these different modalities into consideration.

The evaluation covers the programmes and projects implemented in the period 13 January - 31 December 2010. It includes all SHO organisations and their affiliates active in Haiti, and pays specific attention to those having the largest share of the expenditure in 2010. The evaluation covers all sectors receiving support.

The first year of SHO support to Haiti was mainly characterised by emergency relief.7 This is also reflected in the mix of activities implemented by the SHO organisations and their partners. The boundary between emergency relief and early recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation is not always clear. Where appropriate and feasible, the latter are already supported in the emergency phase. Consequently, the evaluation has also covered activities related to recovery and rehabilitation, such as education and health programmes (e.g. rebuilding or refurbishing schools or clinics and hospitals), livelihood programmes (e.g. food-for-work and cash-for-work programmes or the provision of small loans to families and small enterprises), and the establishment of sustainable housing (e.g. the provision of transitional or semi-permanent shelter). Finally, though the evaluation mainly focused on activities taking place in the hardest hit urban areas it also included a number of interventions located in rural or peri-urban areas to which earthquake victims had fled.

• Full report

L’objectif de cet exercice, réalisé avant la mission sur le terrain, est de faire un état des lieux des conclusions communes aux principales évaluations conduites jusque là par la communauté internationale. Il s'appuie aussi sur la connaissance du terrain accumulée par l’équipe d’évaluation du Groupe URD.

• Full report

• Full report

Objectives: The primary objective of this evaluation is to assess the impact of beneficiary
communications activities, campaigns and messages in Haiti, whilst gaining a better
understanding of peoples’ information needs and the most effective channels to
use. The evaluation also aims to identify ways for the Red Cross to increase two-way
communication to increase accountability and engagement with beneficiaries.

This evaluation focuses on the beneficiary communications activities of the Haitian
Red Cross (HRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Socities (IFRC), looking specifically at activities through the eyes of the beneficiaries
to gage perceptions and impact of the Red Cross.

• Full report

The purpose of this document, prepared prior to the field work, is to take stock and learn from the common conclusions of the main evaluations carried out by the international humanitarian community to date. It also builds on the evaluation team’s direct knowledge from the field.

• Full report
• Executive summary

• Full report

This report takes stock of the main achievements in responding to the immediate needs of children and those who care for them – but also highlights the serious gaps and challenges that still exist to ensuring the large numbers of survival and protection of children affected by the earthquake.

• Terms of reference

Objectives:
To assess and report on the performance and results of the country portfolio in line with the WFP mandate and in response to humanitarian and development challenges in Haiti (accountability);
to determine the reasons for observed success/failure and draw lessons from experience to produce evidence-based findings to allow the CO to make informed strategic decisions about positioning itself in Haiti, form strategic partnerships, and improve operations design and implementation whenever possible (learning).

• Full report
• Table of contents

The purpose of this document is to share findings and recommendations from the RTE conducted in June 2010, as well as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) - Haiti program's discussion in August 2010 on how to move those recommendations forward. Annexes include additional extractions from the RTE report, including a timeline of the first months of the response, findings from CRS' Tsunami response based out of Aceh, and staff perspectives that were gathered during the consultant's findings workshop held in June.

• Full report

In 2010 DARA completed a total of 14 field missions to Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Indonesia, the occupied Palestinian territories, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Yemen and Zimbabwe. These countries provided a representative sample of the diverse global crises faced in 2010 by the humanitarian community, including sudden-onset disasters, internal and regional conflicts, protracted crises and complex and forgotten emergencies. The reports from these crises highlight strong donor performance and areas which can inform the international community of where and how overall response can be improved. Recurrent in this years report are the themes of politicisation of aid and the need for greater protection of civilians. In 10 out of the 14 crisis analyzed this year, government and military interests have often taken priority over humanitarian needs such as protection, especially for women and children.

• Full report

Objectives: To explore and evaluate user understanding of the EMMA toolkit; to look at how practitioners perceive its strengths and weaknesses in order to gauge where EMMA sits within practice.

• Full report

• Executive summary

• Terms of reference

Objectives: El principal objetivo de la evaluación es establecer recomendaciones y sacar conclusiones en torno a la gestión en su totalidad de la respuesta de emergencia ante el evento del terremoto del 12 de Enero de 2010 (comunicación, captación de fondos, el diseño de la intervención, su ejecución, el alcance de los objetivos y la medición de resultados.). Además se quiere valorar el vínculo entre la ayuda de emergencia la rehabilitación y desarrollo (LRRD por sus siglas en inglés) y su incorporación y aplicación en los procesos de rehabilitación iniciados tras la primera respuesta de emergencia. En referencia al LRRD se manejarán tres ejes partiendo de los imperativos humanitarios y las perspectivas de desarrollo que son: como se conjugan las iniciativas de la población afectada y de las instituciones públicas con las iniciativas de Solidaridad Internacional.

En relación a las razones estratégicas para la evaluación, se pretende mejorar la calidad de la intervención, incorporar los aprendizajes a la toma de decisiones, generar capacidades y, a través de la rendición de cuentas al equipo de Solidaridad Internacional, fomentar la cultura de la evaluación así como profundizar en la coherencia de la intervención en relación al contexto regional y la experiencia de intervención de Solidaridad Internacional en el área en este sector de intervención.

• Executive summary

• Full report

• Terms of reference

• Terms of reference

General Objective

Meet the immediate needs of the population affected by the earthquake and support building reconstruction

Specific Objectives

1. To ensure access to safe drinking water and provide sanitation for 75,000 affected people.
2. To meet the immediate needs for food and nonfood products of the affected populations.
3. To promote and support breastfeeding amongst children under 12 months. 
4. To provide psycho-social support for people in distress and to enhance their coping mechanisms.

• Terms of reference
• Annex

Contact: Cathie Hurst, Manager, Caribbean Section, AusAID, Catherine.Hurst@ausaid.gov.au

• Full report
• Terms of reference

Purpose: This evaluation will examine OCHA’s response policies, structures and processes and their overall effectiveness in execution of OCHA’s core coordination functions. It is expected that the evaluation will contribute to organizational thinking about emergency response in OCHA and derive lessons for improving future humanitarian response operations. The conclusions and recommendations shall be discussed by the SMT. A management response matrix shall be prepared within three months of the finalization of the report.

Objectives: 1. Examine whether meaningful results were achieved and whether OCHA successfully identified and performed its core coordination functions; 2. Examine the timeliness, relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of OCHA’s response to Haiti earthquake and produce lessons for improving future OCHA operations; 3. Review performance of all processes and structures employed during OCHA Haiti response; 4. Examine the extent to which the operation represents an appropriate response from OCHA in view of its mandate and priorities as laid out in the Strategic Framework; 5. Assess adequacy and utilization of existing OCHA policies and procedures in guiding the emergency response.

• Terms of reference

Objectives: The main objective of the Evaluation is to provide insight in the effects of the support provided by the SHO partners to Haiti during 2010 aiming to provide lessons for them and the SHO as a whole and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The evaluation also serves an accountability purpose by reporting how the funds provided by the Ministry and the general public in the Netherlands have been put to use and to what effect. In order to serve its accountability function for the Haitian stakeholders the final report will also be provided in French language.

• Full report
• Terms of reference

Objectives: 

a. To assess the extent to which the programme met its objectives as set out in the Phase 1 and Phase 2.1 proposals with particular emphasis on the appropriateness, timeliness, efficiency and effectiveness of the intervention.

b. To learn lessons from the experience in order to improve HelpAge’s future emergency interventions and humanitarian assistance for older people more generally.
 

• Terms of reference

Objectives:

• To assess the delivery of rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in emergency contexts
• To assess how disability was mainstreamed through partnerships (by whom, with whom and how?)
• To formulate recommendations to CBM and its partner organisations in terms of provision of adequate disability inclusive response to disasters

• Full report

Objectives: The purpose of the evaluation is to take stock of the ERRF since its 2008 activation in Haiti and to provide feedback on its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and connectedness to stakeholders, with the aim of highlighting ERRF operational strengths and areas for improvement while also noting anecdotal evidence on results that may be directly attributed to the ERRF. The evaluation is a part of the requirement set under the ERRF donor agreement conditions.

The evaluation will explore how the ERRF is contributing towards a more timely, predictable, effective and accountable humanitarian response. It will assess both the management processes and operational aspects of the fund.

The objectives of the evaluation are to:

1) Assess to what extent the ERRF was able to meet its primary objective of supporting humanitarian organizations and local authorities in responding to natural disasters by providing rapid and flexible funding to partners to implement projects to meet unforeseen needs, as well as additional objectives of strengthening coordination mechanisms (including the role of HC and of the clusters), supporting joint initiatives, and strengthening links with the long term development processes;

2) Identify strengths and weaknesses in operational processes (i.e. governance, project selection,decision making process for fund allocations);

3) Review standard ALNAP criteria including: the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, connectedness and cross-cutting issues (such as gender and vulnerable groups);

4) Identify (a) any improvements that would help strengthen the functioning of the ERRF, and (b) areas working particularly well which might be systematized and applied in other ERRF contexts.

• Terms of reference

Haiti will feature as one of the key case studies in the evaluation of SDC's worldwide humanitarian operations.
Dates: Field visit to Haiti and Dominican Republic 22nd Aug - 5th Sept.
Contact: Claude de Ville de Goyet, Particip GmbH, claudedevilledegoyet@gmail.com
 

• Executive summary

The executive summary and Merlin's management response to an Evaluation of our response to both the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and 2010-11 Cholera outbreak. This evaluation was conducted in accordance with the DECs evaluation policy.

• Terms of reference

General Objective

To prevent mortality among the earthquake affected population.

Specific Objectives and Activities

To provide psychological and/or nutritional support to young children, as well as pregnant and lactating women and people in distress.

Results:

Breastfeeding and adequate feeding practices for children less than one year old are promoted and supported.

Activities: 

• Coordination with partners and advocacy for breastfeeding promotion, as well as adequate use of infant formula with respect to the “International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes”
• Installation of “baby friendly tents” providing support to breastfeeding mothers and infants feeding (using RUIF for infants who cannot be breastfed), and psychological support for children and caretakers.
• Sensitization about breastfeeding and psychosocial issues in the “baby friendly tents”, and at gathering points of earthquake affected people (sensitization of key persons, diffusion of radio messages)

• Terms of reference

ACF-IN promotes and uses Evaluation as a tool to enhance operational performance as well as a way to increase ACF-IN accountability towards beneficiaries, partners and donors.
The evaluation conducted must always comply with donor requirements and / or ACF evaluation policies.

Objective of the Evaluation
To evaluate the ACF’s emergency response to the cholera outbreak. The evaluation will be on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the response including:

• Programs designs and implementation
• Human resources mobilisation (expatriate and national) and adjustment of the HR organization of the mission to the emergency
• Funding mobilisation (including the way the co funding of the project has been designed)
   

• Full report
• Terms of reference

The purpose of this external evaluation is to assess the performance and whenever possible the outcome and impact of the activities carried out by IOM, with a main focus on funding received from Sida, in order to identify lessons learnt and good practices for IOM’s implementation of projects and management. The evaluation was planned to take place during the implementation in order to provide IOM Haiti programme managers with useful inputs that could be used as suggestions before the end of the project itself and for the implementation of other projects.

The evaluation specific objectives are:

• To assess the projects through evaluation criteria (relevance of the intervention to the humanitarian situation, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. A particular attention will be paid to the coverage, coherence, connectedness, coordination among other subjects) with a particular focus on the results (Results-Based Evaluation) and in particular to identify the lessons learnt and related recommendations based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of results in terms of the changes occurred in the lives of beneficiaries and the degree to which the level of previous living condition have improved.
• To identify best practices that could be applied on a wider scale in the activities implementation, taking into account the particular profile and vulnerability of the target beneficiaries.

The evaluation should also serve as accountability purposes towards the donor, in particular towards the Sida-IOM agreement’, and partners and providing transparent information between programmes and IOM units allowing improvement in the planning and management of current and future projects.

• Full report

This report intends to share with the general public, the people of Haiti, and our supporters a detailed breakdown of how the funds donated to MSF for the earthquake emergency relief effort have been used to meet the needs of the Haitian people in the year since the earthquake hit. It attempts to outline the choices made by MSF in deploying its operations, the challenges we faced, the lessons we learned, and our plans and perspectives for the
future.
The report is broken into three sections. The first covers MSF’s operations in Haiti from January 12, 2010 to October 31, 2010 in three phases: the emergency (January 12 through April 30); the post-emergency (May 1 through October 21); and the cholera emergency (October 22 through the present). The second section provides a breakdown of the financial resources spent by MSF in the first year of the emergency. The final section discusses
the current challenges and MSF’s future plans.

• Terms of reference

Purpose: In addition to joint fundraising, the Humanitarian Coalition members made a commitment to working together to improve program delivery and accountability standards. A significant effort has been given to the development of joint programming standards, a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and comprehensive financial accountability protocols. As a part of this commitment the Humanitarian Coalition is organizing its first Real Time Review (RTR). Implementing a joint RTR in the first phase of a response requires a very flexible approach from the RTR team in order to fit in with the demands and challenges facing the members’ team/s, partners and the affected population.

• Full report

• Full report

An evaluation carried out as part of the committment to the DEC. The benchmakrs used were the DEC priorities for accountability, Oxfam's own standards and principles and international standards such as Sphere.

• Full report

• Full report

Objectives:

The objectives of the DRLA/UEH Humanitarian Aid Evaluation are to:

• Evaluate the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of humanitarian interventions on human security and community resilience.
• Develop recommendations for improving human security and resilience outcomes in catastrophic disasters.
• Develop the capacity of Haitian academic institutions to execute and disseminate evaluations of humanitarian interventions and their effects on community resilience.
• Disseminate findings among the international humanitarian community.

• Full report
• Methodology

The Haiti REA; 1) Developed an improved understanding of earthquake-related environmental issues as they related to on-going and planned relief and recovery operations; 2) Provided a scoping and identification of key issues for a planned Programmatic Environmental Impact Assessment (PEA) for the facilitation of USAID recovery funding, and for other, more specific assessments of environmental impacts; and 3) Identified ways in which USAID earthquake-related assistance could contribute to an improvement in environmental conditions in Haiti.

• Full report

Objectives: The evaluation assesses the operational effectiveness and the main outcomes of the cluster approach, as well as its interactions with other pillars of humanitarian reform. It
offers recommendations for different stakeholders to better achieve the intended goals of the cluster approach. As the primary objective of the evaluation is to encourage learning, it aims to identify factors that hinder or support the cluster approach in achieving these goals.

• Full report

Objectives: L’évaluation analyse l’efficacité opérationnelle et les principaux résultats de l’approche Cluster aussi bien que ses interactions avec les autres piliers de la réforme humanitaire. Le rapport propose des recommandations aux différentes parties prenantes pour qu’elles atteignent mieux les objectifs escomptés de l’approche Cluster. Comme le
premier objectif de cette évaluation est d’encourager l’apprentissage, ce document vise à identifier les facteurs qui gênent ou soutiennent l’approche Cluster dans l’atteinte de ces objectifs.

• Full report
• Terms of reference
• Key findings

Ushahidi Haiti Project is interested in assessing the effectiveness of the mobilization of the Ushahidi technology platform following the recent earthquake in Haiti, in particular during the initial disaster response phase. The deployment was based out of and managed by students from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a graduate school of international affairs based at Tufts University. The evaluation will look at how widely the Ushahidi Haiti platform was used by different organisations, how effectively it was implemented, and how it was communicated to people on the ground. Furthermore, the evaluation will address the appropriateness of Ushahidi Haiti Project’s work; does this form of deployment addresses the real needs of the situation and add value to the response? The evaluation will take place in Boston and Haiti.
 

The time period being evaluated is January 12 through January 26, the immediate emergency response period. Evaluation Goal: To understand the effect that the Ushahidi Haiti deployment had in the humanitarian crisis response effort in Haiti from January 12 to January 26, 2010 in order to inform future actors that may consider utilizing the crisis mapping platform. Evaluation objectives: This evaluation will have three objectives: 1) effectiveness, 2) efficiency, and 3) relevance. These objectives are defined in the OECD DAC evaluation terminology.

• Full report

The aim of this review was to examine three broad areas of action primarily related to relief and recovery assistance to the Haitian Government and people: (1) internal U.S. Government
coordination; (2) partner coordination; and (3) response effectiveness. The timeframe of the report is from the date of the event, 12 January, through 30 June 2010. All data collected and analyzed correspond to this timeframe. The report draws on more than one hundred and fifty interviews and several hundred documents to identify lessons learned in the first six months of the response. Many of these lessons are shortcomings and need changes in the system, but many are successes. If the report focuses on the shortcomings, it is to learn from mistakes and make the management of catastrophes a little easier in the future than it was this time around.

• Full report

• Full report

To assess UNICEF’s collective operational response as an organization during the first three months of the crisis in Haiti; to assess, as systematically and objectively as possible, what in UNICEF’s response to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti worked well, what worked less well, and what key organizational factors at various levels of the Organization served to help or hinder the response. The review will generate recommendations identifying concrete actions for UNICEF to take to strengthen its operations, so as to ensure the most timely, effective and efficient response possible in future emergencies.

• Terms of reference

The IA RTE will be multi-phased and provide snapshots of current situations, including real-time feedback and learning to the UN Country Team (UNCT) and to the IASC locally. The main objective of the IA RTE is to assess the response at multiple phases to inform management decision making in the field, and enable both field and headquarters staff to undertake corrective actions in real time as the response evolves. Actions taken during the first weeks and months after a disaster have a major impact on the recovery process that follows. Accordingly, the first IA RTE team will be deployed during the initial phase. A subsequent mission will allow for reflection on uptake of lessons learned and further reflect upon the direction of the response. The results of the IA RTE in Haiti are envisaged to support the ongoing operational planning of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), which will be the most immediate user of the IA RTE process and its recommendations. In the transition to recovery phase of the IA RTE, primary users include those involved in the post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) and recovery framework (RF) development processes, senior management and support functions within agencies involved in the response, donors, and others.

• Full report

IA-RTE Framework PHASE 1: (a) Remote Monitoring (12th January – mid March); (b) 1st Mission on the Initial Response (Mid-March – April 2010); PHASE 2: (a) Survey of the Affected Population (October 2010); (b) 2nd Mission on the Transition to Recovery Issues (October-December 2010); PHASE 3: Global Synthesis Report (January – February 2011). This evaluation constitutes the first phase of the multi-phased IA RTE and provides a snapshot of the current situation, including real-time feedback and learning to the UN Country Team (UNCT) and to the IASC locally. The main objective of the first IA RTE mission is to assess the response in order to inform management decision making in the field, and enable both field and headquarters staff to undertake corrective actions in real time. The results are envisaged to support the operational planning of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), which will be the most immediate user of the IA RTE process and its recommendations.

• Full report

This report summarises the second phase of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Inter-Agency Real-Time Evaluation of the response to the Earthquake, twenty months after the disaster event. The earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th 2010 had a drastic effect on the country’s human and institutional public and the private sector capacity. An estimated 230,000 people lost their lives; 300,000 more were injured and over 1 million were left homeless. The devastating humanitarian situation was compounded by Haiti’s underlying vulnerabilities and high level of chronic poverty. In response, the international community mounted a massive humanitarian relief effort and fifty-five donors pledged a total of $4.59 billion in grants for 2010 and 2011 towards the rebuilding of the country.

Given the scale of the disaster and subsequent hum anitarian response, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) launched a multiphase exercise to inform decision makers at national and headquarters levels, to draw lessons and allow corrections to be made where necessary. The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is intended to be the most immediate user of the feedback and recommendations of the evaluation.

The first phase of the Inter-Agency Real-Time Evaluation, completed in May 2010, covered the initial response. The second phase was initially foreseen to take place in October 20103 and focus in a forward-looking manner on inter-agency coordination problems or operational challenges during the transition phase. The process was postponed, due to the October 2010 cholera outbreak and the delays in starting the transition phase.

This second phase sought to:

• Analyze and provide lessons for the ongoing response, with a particular focus on coordination between different actors involved;
• Examine options for linking humanitarian response structures with longer-term and/or governmentestablished mechanisms; and
• Analyse the extent to which the findings and recommendations from the first phase of the Inter-Agency Real-Time Evaluation have informed the evolving humanitarian response in Haiti.

• Terms of reference

Objective of the Evaluation

The objective of the evaluation is to draw “lessons-learned” and recommendations regarding the relevance of the “double-sided” approach used in the urban context that is Port-au- Prince, after the January 12th earthquake.

This approach consists of:

• First, blanket supplementary feeding (BSF) for families with children from 6 to 59 months and/or lactating and pregnant women
• Secondly, Fresh Food Vouchers distributions to the general population where eligible BSF families are located.

The evaluation will contribute to the technical and methodological capitalisation for this type of intervention. The evaluation should as well look at program definition and implementation and propose specific and concrete recommendations, both as a response to the emergency and to the longer term needs facing the affected population.

• Full report
• Terms of reference

Objectives: The purpose of this joint evaluation is to provide to participating organizations a measure of the effect of their post earthquake’s emergency intervention in Haiti within the first 7 months and to draw clear recommendations for longer term programming for the coming 5 years.

Specific Objectives
a) To provide an assessment of the relevance and timeliness of the humanitarian response to the earthquake so far using the DAC criteria of:

• Relevance /appropriateness
• Connectedness
• Coherence
• Coverage

b) To draw out key lessons to inform agencies recovery plans, with consideration given to implementation according to benchmarks and targets in each agency’s accountability framework

• Commitment to agreed humanitarian principles, standards and behaviours in addition to performance in each organization core sectors and in cross-cutting issues (protection, gender equality, local context, participation of primary stakeholders).
• How far have agencies built on local capacity?
• Accountability to beneficiaries: to what extent the affected population has been involved in all stages

c) To determine to what extent agencies are building on lessons learnt from similar humanitarian responses, specifically previous earthquake responses.

d) To determine to what extent synergies, cooperation and integration have occurred.

e) What are the negative impacts of the early response, especially for the longer term (such as increased concentration of power, authority and economic resources or focusing on sites instead of communities). Is the “do no harm” approach applied?

f) Advocacy: to what extent the organizations used their network to promote key priorities of the affected population at the highest level.

g) To highlight any unmet needs or unnecessary overlap that should be addressed further during the response.

• Full report

Ce rapport a pour objectif d’analyser quelques spécificités du contexte urbain de Port-au-Prince ainsi que certains des grands enjeux de la reconstruction qui s’amorce en Haïti, presque deux ans après le tremblement de terre du 12 janvier 2010, afin de permettre à Solidarités International de mieux définir les cadres de son action en contexte urbain.

• Full report

• Full report

Objectives: Une brève analyse de l'évolution du contexte doit permettre d'informer SwS sur les facteurs potentiellement les plus influents sur le déroulement des projets.
Une analyse transversale des projets fait le suivi et l’appréciation des processus de gestion mis en place dans ces projets pour atteindre leurs résultats. Elle permet de faire ressortir les forces et faiblesses des différentes approches, les difficultés communes et les solutions à reproduire afin de créer des synergies et favoriser l'apprentissage découlant de la mise en commun des expériences.
Une analyse par projet permet de cibler les forces et faiblesses d'un projet et d'assurer un meilleur suivi de la mise en oeuvre afin d'émettre des recommandations précises.

• Full report

This report captures three important observations:

1. Traditional humanitarian organizations were often open to the new technologies, but remain nervous about the implications of information and powersharing through crowdsourcing and other new media platforms.

2. Joint humanitarian communities demonstrated that there were many beneficial ways to use digital media in the crisis setting, particularly texting functions.

3. Although much of the attention has been paid to new media technologies, radio was the most effective tool for serving the needs of the public. The first media priority in Haiti was to restore radio service (as it was in the tsunami and other recent crises).

• Full report

The objectives of this evaluation of urban case studies are to:

a. review, the tools, practices capacities and methodologies employed by humanitarian agencies in responding to humanitarian crises and emergencies;

b. develop a robust evidence base to support the strategy formulated for meeting humanitarian challenges;

c. enhance IASC’s understanding of challenges and gaps encountered in the humanitarian response.

• Full report

Purpose: To evaluate Concern’s response programme in the first six months following the January 12th earthquake with particular emphasis on appropriateness, timeliness, efficiency and effectiveness of the interventions carried out.

Objectives focus on: 1. The process; 2. The quality, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the response; 3. The level of connectedness and coherence of the response.; 4. Relevance of Concern’s systems to cope with a major sudden onset emergency –HR, Finance, Procurement and Logistics systems.; 5. The extent to which ‘lessons’ or recommendations from previous emergencies were incorporated into this response; 6. Identify lessons to be learned to inform the future emergency responses of Concern.

Methodology: Participatory process: 1. Review of relevant secondary data – e.g. proposals, donor reports, and case studies; 2. Meet and/or interview key staff in Concern’s head office and US office; 3. Use of appropriate tools and interview/focus groups discussions. 4. Visit the areas where the emergency responses were implemented, using appropriate tools to interview programme participants and other key stakeholders, including partners and project staff - the views of non- beneficiaries should also be included; 5. Debriefing and / or presentation to key staff on key findings and recommendations; 6. Produce and solicit feedback on the draft report from relevant Concern staff in Dublin and Haiti; 7. Production of the final report from the analysis.

• Full report

• Terms of reference

The main purposes of the consultancy are: 1. Learning to enable AGIRE and its member agencies to learn from the response given in Haiti, in order to undertake corrective actions in real time and to identify lessons for the future at the field and HQ level; 2. Accountability to provide an independent assessment of quality and appropriateness of the AGIRE-funded response throughout the programs as well as immediately after their conclusion.

The evaluation will focus more on strategic approaches adopted by member agencies rather than on details of project implementation. The exercise will draw on analysis and information collected by looking at the overall response of member agencies in Haiti, but it will primarily focus on programs funded by AGIRE. A set of relevant cross cutting themes have to be taken into account throughout the process, namely Gender, Accountability, Participation, Resilience, Use of Local Resources, Poverty Reduction, DRR and Corruption.

Contact: Marco Bertotto, m.bertotto@agire.it

• Full report
• Executive summary
• Terms of reference

The MSF response to Cholera in Haiti was of extraordinary scope and happened under extremely difficult circumstances: Cholera re-appeared for the first time after 100 years and spread rapidly given the poor humanitarian situation in the country. While all MSF sections were involved in the response, this evaluation covers the intervention of the Operational Centre Geneva (OCG) between October 2010 and February 2011. The intervention is judged very successful: Innovative approaches were applied for the management of Cholera in pregnant women, for decentralised care in remote rural areas and for the treatment of excreta in treatment facilities. Social mobilisation was the key for rapid intervention and scale up. MSF had an important technical lead role in the nation-wide Cholera response. One of the main recommendations is on the need for MSF to move beyond its mainly curative response to more effectively prevent the spread of an epidemic.

• Full report

Objectives: 

Focus: 

Criteria: 

Comments: 

• Full report

Objectives: The main purpose of this review is for the MFA to learn from and further develop the humanitarian assistance based on the concrete and operational experiences with the support to Haiti. The aim of the review is two-fold:
1. To document the first phase response of MFA to the earthquake disaster in Haiti.
2. To assess the response in light of previous Norwegian experiences with response to
large natural disasters as documented in reviews and evaluations.

• Full report

• Terms of reference

The World Vision Haiti Earthquake Response program plans to conduct an objective End of Project (EOP) evaluation of the SIDA funded Primary Health Care Project. The project is aimed to provide access of primary health care services among the earthquake affected families in 10 camps, targeting IDPs.

Contact: Kerstin Hahn, Kerstin_Hahn@wvi.org
 

• Terms of reference

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the coordination and management systems of the Haiti earthquake response operation, focusing on both relief and early recovery concerns.

Contact: Josse Gillijns, josse.gillijns@ifrc.org
 

• Full report
• Terms of reference

This evaluation of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DG ECHO)’s operations and strategy in Haiti is in keeping with Articles 7 and 18 of Council Regulation 1257/96 concerning humanitarian aid and Article 27 of the Financial Regulation (EC, Euratom) 1605/2002.

DG ECHO has been running programmes in Haiti for more than fifteen years. These programmes have concerned issues related to disaster preparedness (DIPECHO programmes), the response to natural disasters and the humanitarian consequences of political and economic turmoil (different types of emergency decisions). On the basis of an analysis of the humanitarian situation carried out in 2007, an ad hoc decision was made in 2008 which allowed programmes in the sector of Maternal and Child Health to be funded, complementing the funding of projects in connection with decisions made on the Food Aid budget line. In 2009, to respond to the high levels of malnutrition following the hurricanes of 2008, DG ECHO opened an office in Port-au-Prince and established a Global Plan. In the hours following the earthquake of 12 January 2010, DG ECHO rapidly mobilized funds both through the European Civil Protection mechanism and by making funds available to its partners via primary emergency, emergency and ad hoc funding decisions. These efforts continued in response to the cholera crisis from October 2010. At the end of 2010 and during the first weeks of 2011, DG ECHO clarified its objectives for 2011 as well as its coordination strategy with other European instruments and the Member States.

The evaluation covered all these arrangements and actions at both strategic and operational levels in order to help DG ECHO and its partners to be as accountable as possible and draw as many lessons as possible from this series of operations.

• Full report

Tearfund conducted an RTE for their phase 2 response in Haiti (the first 6 months). The prime purpose of the evaluation was to learn from the second phase of the response, which started in mid-February following the one-month emergency response phase, and to identify lessons both for the remainder of Phase 2 (until July 30 2010) and for Phase 3, which is envisaged as the recovery and reconstruction.

• Full report

Objectives: 

To review, in as factual and neutral a way as possible, the national and international actors and bodies involved in the response to the crisis.

2. To evaluate the level of coherence between needs and the emergency relief provided.
The evaluation included critical analysis of the relevance of the emergency relief delivered by civilian and military actors in relation to the needs of the affected population and the specific constraints of this operational context. The conclusions of this analysis will guide future decisions with regard to preparation and planning of French actors’ response to crises at the national level and in relation to multilateral issues.

3. To speak to beneficiaries and to try to understand how they perceive the response, how
they judge the quality of the aid provided and the aid agencies, and how they perceive the future.

4. To analyse the response in terms of defence and security and identify lessons learned and know-how needed via the activities of the MINUSTAH, the US military deployment and  overlapping external military interventions.

The evaluation focuses on the following points:

- the constraints involved in the response;
- the initial situation and needs assessment;
- the sequence of events involved in the response to the earthquake;
- the impact of international relief on security.

These highlight improvements which need to be made to the inter-ministerial mechanism which is currently being put in place and recommendations are made for way of improving the way the response to crises is planned by the state.

• Full report
• Terms of reference

This report is compiled following a request by the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)2 at a meeting on 6 May 2010. The report is written 6 months after the 12 January earthquake in Haiti and is concerned primarily with the response by IASC members to the disaster, but necessarily refers to the role of other key actors, including the Haitian population and Government, international militaries, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), and regional entities. The report describes the response of the humanitarian community to the earthquake, outlining the main achievements and challenges encountered, proposes lessons which can be learned from the initial phase of the humanitarian response, and summarizes some aspects of the way forward.

• Full report

This report documents the impact of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake on farmers, and highlights chronic problems in the agricultural sector that could impede recovery. This document reports on a comprehensive seed system security assessment (SSSA) in Haiti, undertaken in May-June 2010. The work, the first ever SSSA in Haiti or the wide region, assessed the impact of the January 2010 earthquake on households and agricultural livelihoods, examining possible changes in assets, land holdings, labour availability, income generation activities, crop profiles and seed use. The work analysed acute seed security issues, particularly farmers’ strategies for obtaining seeds, and the impacts of past emergency seed aid. More chronic seed security problems were also analysed, including the effectiveness of markets (which provide 80% of seed in Haiti), the transformation of agricultural products, and access to modern varieties.

• Full report

• Full report
• Terms of reference

• Full report

• Full report

This report emerges from Ian Davis’s visit to Haiti in November 2011, to examine progress
with reconstruction approximately twenty-two months after the earthquake. His visit only
lasted three weeks, but his reflections relate to almost 40 years of work, as an architect,
academic and consultant examining, researching and writing about post-disaster sheltering and
housing in about 30 different recovery situations. During his visit he was able to visit various
sites and interview a spectrum of informants that included NGO, UN and Government officials
as well as earthquake survivors, consultants, private sector representatives and academics. Ian
Davis’s findings are totally independent viewpoints since he was not employed by any agency
operating in Haiti.

This is a summary of a longer, fully illustrated report with relevant historical examples. This can
be downloaded from www.onuhabitat.org/haiti