McRAM Pakistan
A Lesson in Assessment
Preparedness
McRAM
Pakistan Floods August 2010
Provinces
4
Interviewers
107(m) 95(f)
Districts
27
Settlements/Villages
383
Households
2,442
Total days
24 (4 collecting data in the field)
McRAM timeline
Date (August)
Event
Date
Event
13
First AWG
26
Field
27
Field
14
15
Sandie Arrives
28
Field/ Herbert arrives/
Richard arrives
16
Cluster inputs
29
17
AWG
30
Data entry, cleaning, IM
product design with
clusters
18
Bilateral meetings with
clusters
31
19
Alice arrives
1 (September)
20
2
21
3
22
4
23
Training
5
24
Training
6
25
Field
7
Preliminary findings
Full HH data shared
Full Com data shared
Report uploaded
Assessment Preparedness
The Multi-cluster Rapid Assessment Mechanism
(McRAM) project commenced in Pakistan in March
2008 with the aim of designing a post-emergency
assessment that:
• was collaborative (i.e. a multi-cluster assessment)
• utilized Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) technology
McRAM Project Objective:
…..to have a well designed, multi-cluster
assessment mechanism in place and a system
prepared to implement this mechanism at
very short notice in order to improve the
quality and timeliness of joint assessments.
McRAM Preparedness Within Contingency Planning
PREPAREDNESS
RESPONSE
Contingency
Planning
Rapid Onset
Emergency
Pre-crisis Vulnerability
Vulnerability
Baseline
Early
Warning
Scenario
Mapping
Preparedness Arrangements for
Multi-Cluster Assessments
Impact ………..…Recovery
Phase 1
Information
gathering
Phase 2
Multi-cluster
Assessment
Phase 3
Sector
Assessments
Assess
Response
NB, phase 4 multi-cluster assessments could be deployed to assess the effectiveness of humanitarian response.
Phase 4
Multi-cluster
Assessment
Key Features of the McRAM
•
•
•
•
•
•
Preparedness
Community needs assessment
Joint Ownership and Commitment
Collaboration
Technology
Out-sourcing of data collection
Challenges in McRAM Preparedness
1. Galvanizing commitment
2. Establishing coordination and management
structures
3. Identifying roles and responsibilities for carrying
out an emergency assessment
4. Defining key initial information needs
5. Ensuring gender was mainstreamed
6. A multi-cluster assessment is complex
7. All emergencies are not the same
8. Funding preparedness and actual assessments.
1. Galvanizing commitment
• For the agencies and organizations involved: a
common needs assessment should represent
more efficient deployment of resources
• For the population affected: a common needs
assessment to get the information required by
multiple clusters reduces assessment fatigue.
• Without genuine commitment to a joint
assessment, agencies will continue with their
own agency or sector specific assessments
Key features in Pakistan that contributed
to galvanising joint commitment to the
McRAM:
• The Government of Pakistan accepted the need
for a community based needs assessment.
• The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF)
committed that they would ask members to hold
off on initial assessments and use McRAM data.
• A functioning cluster system already existed in
Pakistan.
• The Pakistan HCT was already engaged in interagency contingency planning.
2. Identifying coordination and management
structures
• Formation of a McRAM Steering Committee
consisting of the cluster coordinators, the PHF
representative, the ICRC, the IFRC, and the
NDMA, chaired by OCHA.
• During ongoing contingency planning, this
groups became the IASC Operations Group.
3. Identifying roles and responsibilities for
carrying out an emergency assessment
• A core McRAM team comprising of a Project
Coordinator, programmers and a Social Scientist.
• In Pakistan linguistic and cultural differences,
difficult terrain and vast distances make
information gathering difficult with implications
for timeliness, logistics and cost.
• The solution to this in the Pakistan context was to
have stand-by arrangements with local partners.
4. Identifying key initial information needs
• A country sector specialist may not necessarily
be able to design a good set of questions!
• Improved access to global guidance such as
IASC tools would be an advantage for this part
of the process, but these need to be embedded
in country level ownership.
5. Ensuring gender was mainstreamed
• Gender poses particular challenges in the
Pakistan context.
• Ensuring female field researchers was a
challenge in Pakistan but, through good local
partners, not impossible.
• A separate report on Mainstreaming Gender
in the McRAM was compiled.
6. A multi-cluster assessment is complex
• Having field teams pre-trained as part of
assessment preparedness.
• Dedicate sufficient time to this.
• Ensure cluster input.
7. All emergencies are not the same
• Be ready with a set of different options; e.g.
Household, community, camp management,
health facility.
8. Ensuring information is timely
• Use available technology
• Prioritise information management from the
outset in the assessment design.
9. Funding
• Preparedness requires commitment and
resources.
• The level of commitment and resources in
preparedness impacts the quality, timeliness
and usefulness of an actual assessment.
Involvement in McRAM Preparedness
RC/HC
Humanitarian
Country Team
Funding??
UNICEF
IASC Operations Group
Responsibility
Over-arching support
Ensure Gov’t support
Oversight
Direction for Assessment
Ensure Cluster Involvement
Approve design and SOPs
Assessment Team
• Coordinator
•Technical / MIS / GIS
Management + Execution
Liaison with clusters & partners
Finalization of questionnaires
Document SOPs for Assessment
Training of Survey Teams
Programming of questions /
database / reporting formats
Partner Organization
Execution Support
Deploy teams & logistics
Revisiting McRAM Preparedness...
• A “neutral home” for the McRAM
• After 2 years, what was left:
 Ownership
 Tool
 Consensus on the concept
 Some data expertise
 Equipment
• “Assessment Maintenance”