ALNAP | ERD

Inter-Agency Real Time Evaluation (IA-RTE) of the Humanitarian Response to Typhoons Ketsana and Parma in the Philippines

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:21:32 GMT

, posted on 24 August at 03:21.

The purpose of the evaluation is to provide a snapshot of the current situation with real-time feedback and lessons learned to the United Nations Country Team and to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee locally. The results of the real-time evaluation are envisaged to support the operational planning of the Humanitarian Country Team and provide recommendations on how to improve the response to typhoons Ketsana and Parma, and similar responses in the future. The main objectives of the evaluation are to learn from the initial phases of the response, to identify lessons that should be incorporated into programming and to enable field and headquarter staff to take corrective action as the response evolves.

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Humanitarianism in Sri Lanka: Lessons Learned?

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:47:11 GMT

Background paper, posted on 20 July at 10:47.

The Sri Lankan experience provides international humanitarian actors with a cautionary tale of the sensitivities surrounding operations in a conflict affected environment beset by opposing constructs of nationalism and a state determined to maintain control over the nature and direction of humanitarian response. Through decades of protracted conflict, a failed peace process, a massive natural disaster response, and the recent comprehensive military defeat of a proscribed terrorist organization by government forces, the past thirty years have been one long slow learning curve for humanitarian involvement in Sri Lanka. The relationship between the state and the international humanitarian community of donors and aid agencies has often been fraught with tensions and misunderstandings. These dynamics have impacted upon the space in which humanitarians have been able to operate and their access to conflict and disaster-affected communities.

This briefing paper summarizes the key issues and dynamics that have shaped the humanitarian experience in Sri Lanka and draws lessons that, if learned, may help inform humanitarian engagement in other international contexts. This paper has been prepared by an independent consultant for the Feinstein International Center (FIC). It is part of a series of country studies on humanitarianism and politics which also includes Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan/Darfur and Pakistan. These briefings notes are kept deliberately short in order to generate debate on the policy implications of recent crises. They will be revised and expanded later in 2010 for inclusion in a book on the evolving relationship between humanitarian action and politics.

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Afghanistan: Humanitarianism Unraveled?

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:40:12 GMT

Background paper, posted on 20 July at 10:40.

Humanitarians have been following events in Afghanistan with growing apprehension. The viability of time-tested approaches to address the assistance and protection needs of at-risk groups are under threat, both from attempts to incorporate humanitarian players into partisan political agendas and by the targeting of aid workers by non-state actors. An additional concern relates to the way the UN mission has positioned itself and the implications of taking sides, and being seen as taking sides, for the humanitarian system’s ability to address humanitarian need in Afghanistan. But Afghanistan is not unique: there is a widespread feeling that developments in other crises are also challenging the fundamentals of humanitarian action. In Sudan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, and Pakistan, the mixing of disparate agendas under the banner of peace-making or peace-building and attacks against aid workers by non-state actors have resulted in the shrinking of humanitarian space, with deleterious consequences for principled humanitarianism and for the collective ability of aid agencies to assist and protect vulnerable groups.

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A Real- Time Evaluation of Christian Aid's Response to the Haiti Earthquake

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:47:24 GMT

Real-time evaluation, posted on 15 July at 11:47.

The objective of Christian Aid’s emergency response was to support immediate relief and to enable the early recovery of directly and indirectly disaster affected communities. Emergency response activities were designed to empower people to build their lives back better than they had been before the disaster.

Planned emergency response activities included the distributions of cash, food, shelter and Non-Food Items (NFIs), as well as livelihood support. Targeted beneficiaries included vulnerable individuals and families living in their own houses, inhabiting planned or spontaneous camps, as well as IDPs who had moved in with those who had not been directly affected by the earthquake.

The main aim of the RTE was to enable Christian Aid and its partners to reflect and learn from their
experiences to date in order to influence the next phase of programmes. In order to do this, the RTE examined:

• how the implementing chain of headquarters to field office to partner to beneficiary functioned
• the quality and timeliness of decision making and programming

The RTE framework was designed to explore issues of appropriateness and timeliness, coordination, coverage, appropriateness and effectiveness, efficiency, as well as connectedness and sustainability. In addition, the evaluator was asked to include recommendations as well as to propose a program strategy.

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Earth, wind and fire A review of UNHCR?s role in recent natural disasters

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:37:46 GMT

Review, posted on 23 June at 10:37.

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Trees only move in the wind A study of unaccompanied Afghan children in Europe

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:29:25 GMT

Study, posted on 23 June at 10:29.

The arrival of unaccompanied and separated children from other parts of the world, some of whom submit applications for refugee status, has been an issue of mounting concern to many European countries and to UNHCR.
That concern derives from a number of different factors, including:
• the growing number of children involved in this movement;
• the grave risks encountered by these children as they make their way to Europe;
• the involvement of human smuggling networks in their movement;
• the perceived misuse of asylum systems by some of those who submit claims for refugee status;
• the lack of protection and assistance for children who do not submit asylum claims, though they might qualify for protection, as well as those whose protection needs are not correctly assessed;
• the cost of providing the new arrivals with appropriate forms of care and support; and,
• the difficulties involved in determining the age and best interest of these young people and finding a solution to their situation.

Afghans constitute one of the largest groups of unaccompanied children who are currently making their way to Europe and who are in some but not all instances submitting applications for refugee status there.1 A major problem for UNHCR in its efforts to formulate a coherent and consistent approach to this movement has been a lack of information with regard to their profile. While some relevant studies have recently been conducted on this issue, the number of cases and countries covered has been limited.2

The current study was requested by UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Europe and commissioned by the organization’s Policy Development and Evaluation Service in an attempt to address this gap. Further information with regard to the

background, scope, purpose and methodology of the study can be found in Annexes 1 and 2.

Interviews with approximately 150 young Afghans, all of them boys, were conducted in France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK by members of the PDES team and an internal consultant, between November 2009 and March 2010. Additional information on 38 young Afghans in Turkey and 10 in the UK was also included in the analysis. Focal points were identified in the UNHCR offices in Ankara, Kabul, Islamabad and Teheran, who also provided inputs to the study.

While a considerable number of young Afghans were interviewed in the course of this study, the findings cannot be considered as statistically significant. Interviews took place where and when the researchers were able to find children who were willing to talk. Furthermore, only those children who were willing to be interviewed were included in the study.

In each case, young Afghans were given an explanation with respect to the purpose of the study, the confidentiality of interviews and their voluntary nature. Ultimately, therefore, the study is based on a self-selected group.

It is also important to note that children may not necessarily provide accurate information when interviewed in this way. Their responses may well be influenced by the coaching of parents, relatives, other migrants or smugglers, as well as legal and other advisors in the country of asylum in responding to similar questions posed by the authorities and other stakeholders. Stress, anxiety and language difficulties might also influence the quality of the children’s responses.

An important limitation of the study has been the research team’s inability to travel to the region of origin and to examine first-hand the motivations and expectations of families who have encouraged or allowed their children to set out on such a dangerous journey. It should be noted, however, that there is considerable consistency between the findings of this study and that carried out recently by UNICEF Kabul, which included interviews with families in Afghanistan.

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No entry! A review of UNHCR?s response to border closures in situations of mass refugee influx

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:10:17 GMT

Review, posted on 23 June at 10:10.

This paper reviews the way in which UNHCR has responded when states close their borders to mass refugee influxes. Examining both the existing international legal framework and the political and practical experiences of the organization in reacting to border closures in the post-Cold War period, the paper considers whether a "policy toolkit? could be developed which would help to guide UNHCR responses to on-going and future border closures.

When High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres asked PDES to commission a study on this issue, his primary concern was the closure of the border between Somalia and Kenya. As the paper was being readied for publication in June 2010, however, the Uzbekistan government announced that it had closed its border with Kyrgyzstan in response to fears of a mass influx of refugees fleeing violent ethnic clashes in the city of Osh, five miles from the Uzbek border.

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Changing the way UNHCR does business? An evaluation of the Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming Strategy, 2004-2009

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:03:48 GMT

Evaluation, posted on 23 June at 10:03.

The UNHCR Age Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming (AGDM) strategy was intended to introduce a new model of development for UNHCR, towards planning and implementation that put the diverse priorities and needs of persons of concern at the heart of what UNHCR does. Such a way of doing business requires proactive Executive Board and senior management leadership, effective accountability functions, and adequate resources and capacity. The evaluation concludes that despite some good progress UNHCR is still a considerable distance from being the organization envisaged in the AGDM strategy, or an organization where age, gender and diversity have been taken into account at all operational levels and have been adequately mainstreamed.

This report contains the evaluation of the AGDM strategy 2004-2009. The purposes of the evaluation were to: Review and assess the design and delivery of the AGDM strategy. Identify lessons learned, good practices and constraints. Identify interim results, vis-à-vis the results statements set out in the AGDM ACTION Plan 2007-2009. Provide recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the AGDM strategy, follow-up, capacity building and monitoring. Feed into the AGDM ACTION Plan 2010-2012, so as to enhance UNHCR?s ability to meet this aspect of its Global Strategic Objectives.

The evaluation methodology included: establishing a Steering Committee/user group; background document review; regional and country visits to Colombia, Ethiopia and Central Europe, including an-depth participatory evaluation methodology in Colombia; HQ interviews; an electronic questionnaire; and review of the AGDM Accountability Framework (AF). Triangulation revealed that data sources tended to corroborate each other. Bias and limitations included self -selection of reviewed country operations and questionnaire respondents, and financial decisions made by UNHCR which hindered the evaluation team?s ability to spend an adequate amount of time with persons of concern in country.

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Second Real Time Evaluation of FAO's work on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:58:10 GMT

Evaluation, posted on 14 June at 16:58.

This report describes the Second Real-Time Evaluation (RTE2) of the responses of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to the occurrence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), conducted by an independent external evaluation team. In reviewing the FAO avian influenza programmes and activities, the evaluation team has been blessed with the privileges of hindsight. The RTE2 team recognizes that some of the comments and judgements it makes are aided by experiences gained by many people as the programmes in different countries have evolved.

RTE2 has attempted to provide a forward looking approach to the evaluation, using experiences and observations of the performance of FAO’s programmes over the last few years to recommend to FAO, its members and its partners, on how to optimize FAO’s future contributions to the control of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), of other priority disease threats, and to global pandemic preparedness. The evaluation team adopted anopen consultative approach, seeking opinions and feedback from the widest possible range of stakeholders in the different countries visited.

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Evaluation of FAO activities in Tajikistan

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:50:31 GMT

Evaluation, posted on 14 June at 16:50.

The evaluation reviews FAO activities in Tajikistan for the five-year period 2004 to 2009, with a view towards improving the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of its work; providing accountability about performance and assessing the role of FAO in a transition from emergency assistance to a more normal development mode. Throughout the period, and despite increased economic growth as the country emerged from the effects of civil war, the economy of Tajikistan remained fragile. The country faces a number of challenges, including in the agricultural sector. There has been a chronic absence of reliable household income for the rural population which has been exacerbated by periodic years of drought, the last being 2007/2008. There is a continuing high level of rural poverty. The poorest groups of the population spend over 70 percent of their income on food and a sizeable level of the population is subject to chronic or seasonal food insecurity.

Within the context of this challenging environment, the evaluation examined 42 projects that were implemented by FAO in Tajikistan during the review period. Of these, 30 were purely national projects and 12were global or regional projects in which Tajikistan participated to various degrees. The nature of FAO activities in Tajikistan has changed over the years from almost exclusively input distribution to more development-oriented activities such as establishment of veterinary field units, livestock and pasture rehabilitation, land reform, watershed management and food security issues. The evaluation also examined the work of the FAO Coordination Office in the country. One of the chief reasons for undertaking the Tajikistan country evaluation was to assess the performance of FAO in a period of transition from emergency to development. In addition this was the first country evaluation where there has not been a resident FAO Representation.

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