Guides and training materials
ALNAP has produced a number of guides and training materials for humanitarian agencies and actors. These include guides on
Evaluation
Guide to evaluating humanitarian action using the OECD- DAC criteria
Tony Beck- 2008
The objective of this guide is to provide practical support on how to use the DAC criteria in Evaluations of Humanitarian Action (EHA). It draws on good-practice material on evaluation and on EHA, including other guides, handbooks and manuals. The guide also draws on a questionnaire completed by 25 ALNAP Full Members, and on the work of the author on the ALNAP Review of Humanitarian Action. In order to maintain focus, the guide does not include significant detail on wider issues such as evaluation management, choice of methodologies or evaluation approaches. Also, the guide is not intended to provide in-depth details on the DAC criteria but rather to introduce the criteria to the reader, who can then follow up as appropriate. The guide was 'road-tested' by practitioners, and their useful feedback has been incorporated into this final version
Guide to Real Time Evaluations
Pilot version- 2009
John Cosgrave, Ben Ramalingam and Tony Beck
This pilot guide is intended to help both evaluation managers and team leaders in commissioning, overseeing and conducting real-time evaluations of humanitarian operational responses. Drawing on a synthesis of existing good practices, it is intended as a flexible resource that can be adapted to a variety of contexts.
This guide concentrates on RTEs undertaken in first phase of an emergency response – where the RTE fieldwork takes place within a few months of the start of the response. This is because such RTEs pose particular problems for both the evaluation manager and the evaluation team. RTEs that take place later on in the response are closer to ex-post humanitarian evaluations, but this guide also addresses how such RTEs can feed into ongoing operations.
The Quality Pro Forma
ALNAP developed the Quality Pro Forma as a tool for assessing the quality of evaluation reports in ALNAP’s Evaluation Quality Review (meta-evaluation), featured in the Review of Humanitarian Action series. It draws on current thinking and good practice in the evaluation of humanitarian action, incorporating both recognised evaluation standards and OECD-DAC evaluation criteria with other cross-cutting issues specific to humanitarian action.
Evaluation training material
ALNAP first developed training modules in 2001 as a way of sharing knowledge and good practice identified through its research activities. The modules were updated in 2003 and 2007.
The material is available to all free of charge, to aid those providing courses on the evaluation of humanitarian action. The materials are not a definitive set of ideas: you may want to add further training materials or activities, and introduce your own organisation's policies, procedures and models.
Protection
Protection - An ALNAP Guide for Humanitarian Agencies
by Hugo Slim and Andrew Bonwick, 2005
Summary
This guide offers essential advice and insights to humanitarian practitioners involved in providing safety and protecting vulnerable people in war and disaster. It provides a framework for responsibility and action which helps clarify conceptual issues and helps humanitarian field workers position themselves in relation to other actors with overlapping mandates.
La protection - Un guide (En français)
Participation
Food distribution
Manual for the Provision of General Food Distributions during Emergency Programmes in Malawi
A product of the Joint Emergency Food Aid Programme produced in 2003 by the ALNAP Secretariat on behalf of the Learning Support Office.
The Manual is intended primarily for use by Field Officers and has been deliberately written in a practical style, providing step-bystep guidance to help Field Officers in ensuring the effective operation of general food distribution programmes.
