Download PDF - ReliefWeb

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Overall, 25 of the reports are assessed as clearly written and accessible, and 15 as making good use of maps and diagrams. Twenty-eight reports clearly identify the evaluation’s principal lessons in an accessible fashion, and the reports are generally strong in directing different messages to different audiences, through use of the executive summary and lessons learned. In some reports the writing style was unclear, and greater attention to editing would have made for a much stronger evaluation, for example, in the wording of recommendations.
CHAPTER 3 EVALUATIONS OF HUMANITARIAN AID IN RESPONSE TO THE 1999 KOSOVO CRISIS: SYNTHESIS AND META-EVALUATION 3.1 Overview of this Chapter 3.1.1 Introduction In June 2000, aware of the opportunity provided by the sizeable emerging cluster of evaluative reports of the humanitarian response to the 1999 Kosovo Crisis, ALNAP commissioned an analytical overview (synthesis and meta-evaluation) of evaluative reports of humanitarian action undertaken within this single context. That original analysis, prepared by Professor Raymond Apthorpe, provided the background paper 1 for the ALNAP October 2000 symposium 2 . This chapter expands on that analysis to reflect issues raised by symposiasts (including ALNAP members) and incorporate evaluative reports published since. Its twin tasks are to: 1. summarise the principal findings and recommendations by means of synthesis; 2. assess the quality of the reports through meta-evaluation. Section 3.2, ‘The Kosovo conflict: a set of interlocking crises’, identifies and reviews problems presented by evaluators as having reached crisis proportions, and therefore their principal foci – whether explicitly stated in terms of reference or introduced by the evaluators themselves. The premise is that the first task of an evaluation or overview of evaluations is to discover how the problem was perceived and review in consequence the appropriateness of indicators used to validate the response. Section 3.3, ‘Agency response issues’, selects and synthesises recurring themes in the evaluations’ findings, conclusions and recommendations under the broad categories (a) humanitarian principles, practices, and strategic planning, (b) human resource organisation and management, and (c) technical and standards aspects of operations. It seeks to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of programme design and implementation, based on the premise that evaluation should be multifaceted and consider the wider socioeconomic and political context. The tendency when considering appropriateness of response, for example, is for humanitarian evaluations to focus only on donor-relief supply factors, leaving issues such as agency-driven supply and ideological agendas outside the critical frame. Section 3.4, ‘Meta-evaluation: Kosovo evaluations as learning tools’ evaluates the Kosovo evaluations to assess the generic practice of evaluation of humanitarian action, and its strengths and weaknesses as a lesson-learning genre. Throughout this chapter the term ‘programme’ is used inclusively, denoting both policy and operational aspects within humanitarian action, as is the phrase
Page 1 and 2: ALNAP Annual Review Series 2001 Hum
Page 3 and 4: Foreword In April 2000 the full mem
Page 5 and 6: THE EVALUATIVE REPORTS DATABASE (ER
Page 7 and 8: 1.1.1 Chapter 1: Setting the scene
Page 9 and 10: US$ Millions 5000 4000 3000 2000 10
Page 11 and 12: Box 1.1 Principal Accountability In
Page 13 and 14: Box 1.2 The Development of Evaluati
Page 15 and 16: Box 1.3 The Evaluative Reports Data
Page 17 and 18: The principal contextual difference
Page 19 and 20: inactions). However, the presence o
Page 21 and 22: The first two and their sub-heading
Page 23 and 24: About half of the evaluation report
Page 25 and 26: Box 2.1 Successful Impact? ‘Despi
Page 27 and 28: tarian assistance and political act
Page 29 and 30: here. One important area is the pot
Page 31 and 32: and coordination. Evaluation report
Page 33 and 34: Other examples of longer term strat
Page 35 and 36: development bureaucracies. Such pro
Page 37 and 38: humanitarian space hampered agencie
Page 39 and 40: Box 2.6 Flood Preparedness in China
Page 41 and 42: • Improved coordination, includin
Page 43 and 44: Box 2.7 Good Practice: Participatio
Page 45 and 46: Almost none of the reports note how
Page 47 and 48: Almost all reports are based on the
Page 49: geo-political context, relations wi
Page 53 and 54: humanitarian issues, is highly sele
Page 55 and 56: 3.2 The Kosovo Conflict: a Set of I
Page 57 and 58: mandate. For instance: ‘One reaso
Page 59 and 60: although higher marks for effort an
Page 61 and 62: 3.2.12 A crisis in assistance: assi
Page 63 and 64: 3.3 Agency Response Issues 3.3.1 In
Page 65 and 66: The non-camped refugee population A
Page 67 and 68: or slower emergency were followed (
Page 69 and 70: eports), little provision is made e
Page 71 and 72: While the need to focus seriously o
Page 73 and 74: Codes of conduct and operating prin
Page 75 and 76: 3.4 Meta-evaluation: Kosovo Evaluat
Page 77 and 78: However, little more than introduct
Page 79 and 80: The final, M-4 layer, ought to guid
Page 81 and 82: ights-based approach to relief migh
Page 83 and 84: commissioning, designing and doing
Page 85 and 86: ‘While donor governments gave US$
Page 87 and 88: accorded more careful consideration
Page 89 and 90: 4.2.6 Linking relief, rehabilitatio
Page 91 and 92: ECHO evaluation (ECHO, 2000o) UNHCR
Page 93 and 94: For the most part there is an accep
Page 95 and 96: Kosovo and non-Kosovo reports were
Page 97 and 98: agencies should ensure that suffici
Page 99 and 100: a distinction between assessing whe
Page 101 and 102:
However, the OECD-DAC (1999) guidan
Page 103 and 104:
4.6 Concluding Remarks This Annual
Page 105 and 106:
Chapter 2 1. Use has also been made
Page 107 and 108:
ACT ANNEX 2 ACRONYMS Action by Chur
Page 109 and 110:
WFP World Food Programme (UN) WHO W
Page 111 and 112:
Impartiality An approach to the pro
Page 113 and 114:
DANIDA (1999e) Evaluation of Danish
Page 115 and 116:
Focus: Rehabilitation, resettlement
Page 117 and 118:
Objective: Review whether project m
Page 119 and 120:
Comments: Covers Montenegro, Serbia
Page 121 and 122:
Objective: Assess the impact of act
Page 123 and 124:
ANNEX 5 REFERENCES FOR OTHER SOURCE
Page 125 and 126:
Le Billon, P. (2000) The Political
Page 127:
Valid International (1999) Disaster
show all

Download PDF - ReliefWeb

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?