Definitions

Single agency

Evaluations commissioned by a single organisation to assess a specific intervention.

Joint evaluations

An evaluation in which different donor agencies and/or partners participate. The extent to which individual partners collaborate in the evaluation process, pool evaluation resources and merge evaluation reporting can vary.

OECD

Impact assessment

An assessment that focuses on a tightly defined set of effects of an intervention, with focused questions leading to a limited or narrow view of the wider effects of the programme.

OECD

Impact evaluation

An evaluation that focuses on the wider effects of the humanitarian programme, including intended and unintended impact, positive and negative impact, macro (sector) and micro (household, individual) impact. The essence of impact evaluation is that it explores cause and effect or ‘causal inference’.

EHA Guide

Real-time evaluation

An evaluation of an ongoing humanitarian operation as it unfolds.

EHA Guide

Mid-term/formative

An evaluation performed towards the middle of an intervention. It compares what is being implemented with what was planned or with reference to specific standards.

EHA Guide

Meta/synthesis evaluation

An evaluation designed to aggregate findings from a series of evaluations, organised through a specific analytical framework.

ALNAP evaluation synthesis summary

Policy evaluation

An evaluation that examines the understandings, beliefs, and assumptions that make individual projects possible as well as desirable. It may evaluate both the efficacy of the policy itself and how that policy has been implemented.

EHA Guide

Thematic evaluation

An evaluation of a selection of interventions that all address a specific humanitarian priority that cuts across countries, regions, and possibly agencies and sectors.

EHA Guide

Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)

This sector ensures equitable access to assistance, protection, and services for internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in displacement sites, to improve their quality of life and dignity during displacement, whilst also seeking and advocating for durable solutions.

CCCM

Communications, media & information

This sector ensures that information on humanitarian emergencies is collected and disseminated with clarity of message. This is to support preparedness, response or data analysis activities for the purpose of saving lives, alleviating suffering, and protecting the dignity of crisis-affected populations.

EISF

Coordination

This sector ensures a coherent and joined up response to a humanitarian crisis throughout every stage of the intervention, and across different sectors and stakeholders, be it operational or technical.

OCHA

Education

This sector ensures reliable, well-coordinated and equitable provision of or access to education for populations affected by humanitarian crises. The quality of learning is also considered by this sector, although this is more related to sustainable development interventions as opposed to humanitarian response.

OCHA

Food security

Food security exists when all people have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This sector focuses on a food security response to reduce the need for the affected population to adopt potentially damaging coping strategies. Longer-term responses should protect and restore livelihoods, stabilise or create employment opportunities and contribute to restoring food security.

SPHERE standards

Health

This sector focuses on relieving suffering and saving lives in humanitarian emergencies through healthcare interventions, including emergency medical assistance, outbreak preparedness and response, vaccination, hygiene promotion, and screening for malnutrition. Humanitarian crises have a significant impact on the health and well-being of affected populations.

EC

Logistics

Coordination and information management to support operational decision-making and improve the predictability, timeliness and efficiency of the humanitarian emergency response.

OCHA

Nutrition

This sector improves the nutritional status of crisis-affected populations through timely, quality, and appropriate nutrition response to effectively and accountably meet the needs of people affected by humanitarian crises.

Global Nutrition Cluster

Protection

Protection encompasses all activities aimed at ensuring full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with human rights law, international humanitarian law (which applies in situations of armed conflict) and refugee law.

OCHA

Recovery and resilience

This sector focuses on how best to restore the capacity of the government and communities to rebuild and recover from crisis and to prevent relapses into conflict. 

Reliefweb

Shelter and housing

This sector supports people affected by natural disasters and internally displaced people affected by conflict with the means to live in safe, dignified and appropriate shelter.

OCHA

Water, sanitation and hygiene

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) are each a separate field of work, although dependent on the presence of the other. They are grouped together to represent a growing sector. This sector focuses on providing access to safe water, sanitation facilities and hygiene for affected populations. 

UNICEF

Accountability to affected populations (AAP)

An active commitment to use power responsibly by taking account of, giving account to, and being held to account by the people humanitarian organisations seek to assist. It is concerned with respecting the rights, dignity and safety of people affected by disaster and conflict, identifying their unique needs by gender, age, disability and diversity, and ensuring that all segments of an affected community can equally access and benefit from assistance.

UNICEF

Capacity development

A process by which individuals, institutions and societies develop abilities, individually and collectively, to perform functions, solve problems and set and achieve their goals. (UNHCR)

Reliefweb

Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)

This refers to programs where cash transfers or vouchers for goods or services are directly provided to recipients. In the context of humanitarian assistance, the term is used to refer to the provision of cash transfers or vouchers given to individuals, household or community recipients; not to governments or other state actors.

CaLP

Children and youth

Humanitarian programming focused on children (up to the age of 18) and youth (up to the age of 24), often addressing education, protection, health and well-being, and participation or civic engagement.

UNICEF

Data

The use of information collected before, during and after a humanitarian response, data retention and sharing, and information management.

UNHCR

Equity

The allocation and distributing of humanitarian response to an emergency, such as aid, based on the needs of the people and proportionate to the extent to which they are missing them. This approach addresses disparities through targeted intervention and protection, and aims to provide equal services and treat those who need help with equal importance.

ODI

Forced displacement and migration

Forcible or voluntary uprooting of persons from their homes by violent conflicts, violations of human rights and other traumatic events, or threats thereof. Those who remain within the borders of their own country are known as internally displaced persons. Those who are forced to flee outside the borders of their state of nationality or residence for reasons based on a well-founded fear of persecution are known as refugees. Those who move by choice rather than to escape conflict or persecution, usually across an international border, are known as migrants. Each of these terms relate to specific protection and legal statuses (or thereby a lack of), and should not be used interchangeably. (OCHA and UNHCR)

Reliefweb

Gender

Promoting gender equality in the humanitarian response to an emergency. This can include a gender analysis to inform the response, participation of women and girls for inclusive humanitarian action, and prevention or responding to gender-based violence (GBV).

OCHA

Human Rights

The concept of human rights acknowledges that every single human being is entitled to enjoy his or her human rights without distinction as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Human rights are legally guaranteed by human rights law, and places an obligation on States to act in a particular way, prohibiting them from engaging in specified activities. (OCHA)

Reliefweb

Humanitarian Access

Where protection is not available from national authorities or controlling non-state actors, vulnerable populations have a right to receive international protection and assistance from an impartial humanitarian relief operation. Such action is subject to the consent of the State or parties concerned and does not prescribe coercive measures in the event of refusal, however unwarranted. (OCHA)

Reliefweb

Humanitarian Principles

As per UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182 (19 December 1991), humanitarian assistance must be provided in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality. Humanity: Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found, with particular attention to the most vulnerable in the population, such as children, women and the elderly. Neutrality: Humanitarian assistance must be provided without engaging in hostilities or taking sides in controversies of a political, religious or ideological nature. Impartiality: Humanitarian assistance must be provided without discriminating as to ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political opinions, race or religion. (OCHA)

Reliefweb

Humanitarian-development-peace nexus

The nexus approach is a collective effort of global stakeholders to address protracted and predictable crises, to help people recover and to avoid unnecessary suffering. This concept focuses on the work needed to coherently address people’s vulnerability before, during and after crises. It challenges the status quo of the aid system, and coordination between project-based development, humanitarian and peace building interventions, resulting in it not effectively meeting the needs of the most vulnerable people.

EC