Strategische Beratung

Generally, an evaluation of Humanitarian Action follows also the widely accepted OECD/DAC Criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, effects and impacts and sustainability).  But an evaluation of projects implemented in an acute emergency or chronical humanitarian situation has some distinct characteristics which need to be taken into account:

• In conflict situations (e.g. during civil war) perspectives of the affected population or actors may differ very much; often the situation is interpreted in a different way by different actors. The evaluation team might receive contradictory statements and limits the chance to set up an ‘objective’ evaluation report.
• The collection of data and information is difficult in a fragile context and access to relevant data is not always ensured. Furthermore, in humanitarian context the staff turnover is high due to the demanding working conditions. Key information is transmitted by second- or third-hand and difficult to verify. This might reduce the significance and validity.
• Humanitarian action is planned fast and quickly. Indicators for the performance measurement are often missing and have to be elaborated ‘ex-post’.
• Humanitarian action take place in a highly dynamic context with radical changes in short periods of time, particularly when it comes to military conflicts. Assumptions which were formulated in the beginning are often overtaken by actual events and loose validity.   

A good evaluation report highlights these challenges and describes how these challenges were met. The Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action ALNAP (http://www.alnap.org/) has further developed the framework and concepts for evaluation practises of Humanitarian Action. The following chart provides a useful definition of complementary evaluation criteria:

• the criterion Relevance assesses whether the project is in line with local needs and priorities (as well as donor policy) and the criterion Appropriateness assesses whether the humanitarian activities are tailored to local needs, increasing ownership, accountability and cost-effectiveness accordingly.
• the criterion Connectedness assesses whether activities of a short-term emergency nature are carried out in a context that takes longer-term and interconnected problems into account.
• the criterion Coherence assesses whether security, developmental, trade and military policies as well as humanitarian policies have been considered in the design and planning phase of the project to ensure that there isconsistency and, in particular, that all policies take into account humanitarian and human-rights considerations.

• the criterion Coverage assesses whether the need to reach major population groups facing life-threatening suffering wherever they are, has been taken into considerations.

• the criterion Efficiency measures the outputs – qualitative and quantitative – achieved as a result of inputs. This generally requires comparing alternative approaches to achieving an output, to se e whether the most efficient approach has been used.

• the criterion Effectiveness measures the extent to which an activity achieves its purpose, or whether this can be expected to happen on the basis of the outputs. Implicit within the criterion of effectiveness is timeliness.

• the criterion Impact looks at the wider effects of the project – social, economic, technical, environmental – on individuals, gender- and age-groups, communities and institutions. Impacts can be intended and unintended, positive and negative, macro (sector) and micro (household).

Source: Evaluating humanitarian action using the oECD-DAC criteria – An ALNAP guide for humanitarian agencies, London March 2006 http://www.alnap.org/resources/guides/evaluation/ehadac.aspx