Take part in the updating of our DAC guidance

ALNAP is updating its 2006 guidance on evaluating humanitarian action using the OECD DAC criteria.

In 2006, ALNAP published 'Evaluating Humanitarian Action using the OECD DAC Criteria', a guidance document designed to help evaluation professionals better understand and use the OECD DAC criteria in humanitarian settings.

The guidance recognised that additional criteria – connectedness, coherence and coverage – were needed in these settings. Moreover, it explicitly acknowledged that the DAC criteria were often used mechanistically, and that humanitarian actors need specific guidance on good practice when applying the criteria in the field. The guidance provided practical examples of how humanitarian practitioners have used the criteria, as well as real-world cases of how they have been applied.

In updating the original publication, ALNAP will further explore evaluation issues specific to humanitarian action, including common constraints and challenges of applying the criteria in humanitarian settings over the past 15 years. ALNAP will include recent examples from real-world humanitarian evaluations, notes on good practice and learning since the 2006 publication. 

To date, ALNAP has:

• formed an advisory group to assist with the revision process.
• commissioned a literature review on the use of the OECD DAC criteria and additional humanitarian criteria – connectedness, coherence, coverage – which will support the evidence base for the update. The review will be available on ALNAP's website soon.

Want to participate?

Given the popularity of the existing guidance, there is likely to be great interest in contributing to the update, as well as diverse views on how to best apply the criteria in humanitarian contexts. ALNAP will be launching a survey of humanitarian evaluation practitioners to gather feedback and views on the usage and application of the criteria for evaluating humanitarian action.

Look out for the survey announcement on our website, in the ALNAP Bulletin and on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn channels.

Events forthcoming

ALNAP will be organising and hosting a series of events with humanitarian evaluators, evaluation managers and other humanitarian professionals to gather views on the criteria and their use in evaluating humanitarian action in 2023.

Interested in co-hosting an event and being a speaker? Contact ALNAP Senior Research Fellow Susanna Morrison-Metois at: evalcriteria [at] alnap [dot] com