Now available at the ALNAP website
“The Evaluating Humanitarian Action Guide supports evaluation specialists and non-specialists in every stage of an evaluation, from initial decision to final dissemination.
Here are six reasons we think it’s time for a comprehensive EHA guide:
1. Official donor assistance for humanitarian action has increased nearly six times in real terms from 1990 to 2011.
2. More interest and investment in evaluations as concerns are raised about effectiveness of development aid and humanitarian relief.
3. A critical mass of collective knowledge now exists to build on – ALNAP’s evaluation database alone contains over 500 covering the last decade.
4. Commissioning of evaluations has shifted from agency headquarters to field-based staff as agencies decentralise – yet field-based managers often have little experience in planning and managing evaluations, especially EHA.
5. Little evidence that evaluation results lead to change of, or reflection on, policy and practice – better designed evaluations could provide more compelling evidence for policy change and promote utilisation.
6. The demand for guidance on EHA is growing – a Humanitarian Practice Network member survey in 2009 found that the number one guidance material requests were for EHA.
This ALNAP guide provides practical and comprehensive guidance and good practice examples to those planning, designing, carrying out, and using evaluations of humanitarian action.
The focus is on utilisation: to encourage you to consider how to ensure from the outset that an evaluation will be used.
This guide attempts to support high-quality evaluations that contribute to improved performance by providing the best evidence possible of what is working well, what is not, and why. The ultimate goal is to better meet the needs of people affected by humanitarian crises, who will be referred to throughout this guide as the affected population.”