Displaying items by tag: Emergency interventions

About the course The training covers essential methodologies of evaluation and applies them to conflict intervention, peace-building, and recovery initiatives. We cover challenges such as rudimentary plans, lack of information and complex implementation structures. 

CSDi is announcing the launch of a diploma module of eight online Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Community Based Adaptation (CBA) & Rural Development field courses. These courses begin by introducing basic climate change concepts, and develop as participants identify local community vulnerabilities, identify climate change risks and hazards, investigate appropriate solutions, develop full projects, launch and manage them. A strong course component is the integration of DRR and CBA within course participant’s traditional development projects.

Evaluation Practice and Ethics This advanced training in the Evaluation of Humanitarian Action focuses on dealing with practical challenges in evaluation. This is the third advanced follow up course on the training in Evaluation of Humanitarian Action. This workshop is for those with extensive experience of evaluating humanitarian action, either as an evaluator or an evaluation manager. It will provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own evaluation experience and to use this and the experiences of their peers to improve their own work.

This is the 8th year that we are offering this basic-intermediate level training course, but it is the first international training that will be based on the new ALNAP Guide on ‘Evaluating Humanitarian Action’, that has just been released for piloting. This course has the overall aim of making evaluations of humanitarian action more effective in contributing to the improved performance of interventions and to improve the quality of the evaluation process.

Action Against Hunger (ACF-USA) has successfully worked through partnerships in responding to recent large-scale emergencies in Kenya and Pakistan. In addition to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the humanitarian response, working in partnership facilitated a harmonised approach, with agreed programmatic responses, common needs assessments and tailored response analyses. Evaluations have shown that this approach improved coordination and information-sharing among agencies, catalysed debates around different approaches and how to harmonise them and enabled the exchange of technical expertise and lessons learned, not only among partnership members but across the wider humanitarian community. The partnership approach also enabled individual partners to…

It is estimated that over 70% of all disasters are now related to extreme weather events. Because of this, disaster risk reduction should become an integral part of both development and adaptation projects. The Center for Sustainable Development—CSDi—is launching a winter quarter course on Community Based DRR that begins on January 16. This course is one of eight courses that make up our Online Diploma in Integrated CBA, DRR, & Rural Development. This past year CSDi has participated in a number of DRR partner projects worldwide. We are seeing tremendous similarities between the projects: chiefly disasters caused by extreme weather…

Ever since the first warnings of drought and poor harvests in the Sahel emerged in late 2011, vulnerable communities in the region have been threatened by a looming food crisis. Now, an estimated 18.7 million people in 9 countries within the Sahel region have been affected and over one million children are at risk of severe malnutrition. The crisis has been compounded by the continuing conflict in Mali which has displaced several thousand people and hindered secure access to others in need of humanitarian assistance, and severe flooding in Niger which has killed over 80 people and displaced over 500,000…

As the 18-month uprising in Syria rages on hundreds of thousands of refugees are crossing into neighboring countries of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. While the immediate responses have rightly focused on survival needs such as food, water, and health, education must also be addressed as early as possible. The importance of education in crisis situations is gaining momentum on international agendas, with USAID highlighting it as a goal in the 2011-2015 Education Strategy: “Increased equitable access to education in crisis and conflict environments for 15 million learners by 2015.” More recently, at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in…

There have been an unprecedented number of both natural and conflict-related disasters in recent years. Much has been learned about how to reduce the risk of disasters and prepare communities to respond and increased attention has been given to protecting vulnerable groups in crisis contexts. There are now numerous case studies and toolkits on gender and humanitarian relief and the body of knowledge is growing on age and disability. But there is one area about which we still know very little - the experience and needs of an estimated 21 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people believed to be affected…

This article summarises the findings of a recent monitoring report on an emergency cash-based intervention in South Central Somalia. In what is thought to be the largest cash programme to be implemented by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), 14 NGOs (six international and eight local partners) distributed $50.6 million-worth of cash and commodity vouchers to 136,673 households affected by the famine of 2011. Approximately half the beneficiaries were located in parts of the country controlled by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and half were in areas controlled by the Islamist group Al Shabaab (AS). The monitoring exercise was undertaken by the Somalia…