A ripple in development - Norad

Figure 1: Change in the volume of documents published about the tsunamion ReliefWeb over time.Number of documents postedNumber of documents posted (Log scale)6,0004,0002,000-10,0001,0001001017291,987Number of documents posted per year to ReliefWeb about the Tsunami5,9285274943143344132001811861231373641171,126Number of documents posted per month to ReliefWeb about the Tsunami7894977978826171445623760213028312929420 281First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth YearYears after the tsumani111826281131521151415192326121920Dec 2004Jan 2005Feb 2005Mar 2005Apr 2005May 2005Jun 2005Jul 2005Aug 2005Sep 2005Oct 2005Nov 2005Dec 2005Jan 2006Feb 2006Mar 2006Apr 2006May 2006Jun 2006Jul 2006Aug 2006Sep 2006Oct 2006Nov 2006Dec 2006Jan 2007Feb 2007Mar 2007Apr 2007May 2007Jun 2007Jul 2007Aug 2007Sep 2007Oct 2007Nov 2007Dec 2007Jan 2008Feb 2008Mar 2008Apr 2008May 2008Jun 2008Jul 2008Aug 2008Sep 2008Oct 2008Nov 2008Dec 200858The method used was to circulate iterations of the document set withinthe team who then suggested additions. Researchers in Indonesia andSri Lanka identified key documents from the three selected countries forthe evaluation. Over 600 documents were identified in this way, but thisnumber was then whittled down to less than 400 as less relevant documentswere removed. Another 200 documents were later added through:suggestions from meetings in the field; comments by peer reviewers;documents collected through field work; and further desk research 1 .The final annotated reference set has 610 documents.The main document set is support by a set of 7,775 documentsabout the Tsunami Disaster posted on ReliefWeb. This set has beenused for supplementary searches and to identify key documents for themain reference set.The reducing flow of publications (Figure 1) limits the breath of thedocument set in later years. The bias arising from the unwillingness ofagencies to document flaws was less of a problem for the original TECevaluation as the keen media interest in the whole tsunami responsemeant that there were many internationally published accounts indirectlyfrom the affected population.The original TEC database was built up over nine months, with repeatediterative analyses of the document-set, suggesting additional potentialsources. The shorter timeframe for this study limits the depth of1For example, a search on a particular topic might reveal a reference to a specific institution orprocess . Following this up to lead to finding further documents of relevance to the evaluation .13