Enhancing Disaster and Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Through Evaluation

Book excerpt: In a changing world of fad and fashion, the humanitarian impulse is an enduring quality. This impulse was present in the aftermaths of the Rwandan genocide, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, The first principle of humanitarian assistance is "do no harm." The second might be, "do better!" Enter the evaluation of emergency and disaster management. The route from donor to affected population in long and varied. When sudden, unprecedented needs are juxtaposed with exceptional levels of charitable responses, the question is whether the responses were good enough. Did supply meet demand? Was it the right thing? Was it done well? Who received support? Was it appropriate? Was the timing right? Can it be improved? All are questions for evaluation. This issue of New Directions for evaluation consolidates reflections from evaluation practices in disaster and emergency management. A number of important themes are addressed: the systematic assessment of needs, interagency coordination, and evaluating response in real time, in both international and national jurisdictions. The chapters discuss where the evaluation of humanitarian practice and emergency and disaster management currently stands, and where it should be going. For populations traumatized by disaster, these answers have consequences for protection, for restoration of individual and community efficacy, and ultimately for hope and dignity