Real-time evaluation of World Vision’s response to the Western Balkan refugee response

Thousands fleeing war in Syria, and also Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, are seeking asylum in Western Europe via the ‘Eastern Mediterranean route’ and the ‘Balkan byway’, with Serbia being one of the main countries they are passing through. Serbia is a new country for World Vision (WV) operations. World Vision Bosnia-Herzegovina (WVBiH) sent an assessment team in early August to assess the influx of refugees transitioning through Serbia and the capacity of agencies responding to the refugees’ needs. Based on this assessment WV started a Response in Serbia on 8 September 2015. The Response goal is ‘to alleviate suffering and contribute to the protection of refugee children and families transiting through the Balkans’. Programmes implemented to achieve the goal have focused on providing immediate relief and services in food and non-food items (NFI) distribution and child protection (CP). To date, funds received for the Response are over US$3 million. In order to assess the quality of World Vision’s Response to the crisis a real-time evaluation (RTE) was conducted from 9–15 December 2015. The RTE assessed the Response against four criteria: programme effectiveness and timeliness, relevance and appropriateness, coordination and influence, and organisational efficiency. These criteria were agreed by the planning team which consisted of the regional Humanitarian & Emergency Affairs (HEA) director, the Response manager and the operation manager, the associate director for learning (HEA) and the advisor for learning and policy (HEA). The RTE was for the period from 8 September to 14 December 2015, the immediate Response phase.