4.9 MANAGING HUMANITARIAN PROJECTS
.
Enables tracking of:
- physical and financial
progress
- ongoing priorities and allocation of resources
- equitable distribution of
benefits among affected groups
 Separate data by gender, age and vulnerable groups to support impartiality

Keep recording systems simple and only collect the information you need
 Draw on existing information sources and use shared collection processes
 Include affected groups in monitoring:
– useful for exploring a range of views. Single- sex groups appropriate in some situations
- acceptance and
usefulness of project among affected groups
 and constraints
Facilitates management, learning and accountability through:
- determining impacts throughout the duration of the project (improvements/ changes) for the target population e.g. quality of life
- fulfiling compliance and
accountability obligations e.g. to affected population, supporters, donors, senior management, other agencies
- generating real-time
feedback from the affected population on the quality of performance
- engage them in defining objectives and indicators and information collection
- communicate results back to them
response and organisational
Conducted some time after project/programme completion impact assessment measures :
 Plan for the evaluation purpose and scope:
- What is the intended use and who are intended users of the evaluation?
- How much time and funding is available?
- What methodologies will be used?
 Relate to the project or programme design and consider relevance, connectedness, coherence, coverage, efficiency, effectiveness and impact (OECD-
DAC criteria) to the identified problems and needs.
 Consider how and by whom the evaluation is to be conducted
- What researcher / team qualities are required, e.g. local network, language, acceptance by all?
- Could a joint evaluation be undertaken with others?
- Who should be involved and how, e.g. women, children, marginalised groups?
- How and to whom will results be communicated?
 Schedule evaluation to accommodate demands/constraints facing affected groups e.g. livelihoods, security restrictions
- lasting changes in people’s lives, including unintended and negative impacts
It is important that findings are acted upon and corrective actions taken.
 Relate to pre-disaster baseline information
 Ask ‘
What difference are we making?
’
 Define expected outcomes for partners and the affected population in the project design and incorporate in the evaluation
 Assess the relative impact of different approaches, NOT the overall impact of your organisation’s work
- time-consuming but good understanding.
Important to consider protection risks for interviewees
– useful for quantitative data. Keep simple, contextually appropriate, and feed results back to the community. Careful selection and training of researchers
– field trips,
demonstrations, to
gather evidence
- committees, working groups, suggestion boxes etc
- changes in behaviours
- story-telling
_______________________.
See also ‘Project
Management’ and
‘Logical Framework
Analysis’ pages
Additional resources on All In Diary website or CD:
Impact measurement and accountability in emergencies
– Good Enough Guide, ©
ECB Project (2007); Monitoring and Evaluation-
How to Guide, © BOND, (2010);
Data CollectionDeveloping a Survey, © Innovation Network 2006;
Impact Assessment, © Sightsavers International, 2008;
Monitoring and E valuating Learning Networks © INTRAC 2010;
Evaluating humanitarian action using the OECDDAC criteria © ALNAP 2006;
Real-time evaluations of humanitarian action (pilot version)
© ALNAP 2009
Web links for further information http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/resour ces/downloads/Good_Enough_Guide.pdf http://www.alnap.org/resources/studies/eval uation.aspx http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resourceguides/manuals-and-toolkits/monitoring-andevaluation - Manuals and Toolkits
© 2011 All In Diary - www.allindiary.org
3 rd
edition - 2011