2010:4 Evaluation of Sida’s Humanitarian Assistance

Description:
The purpose of this evaluation is to inform the revision of the Government’s strategy for Sida’s humanitarian assistance 2008-2010. It focuses on the implementation of the strategy, organisation and management, as well as mechanisms and channels for funding humanitarian assistance. The evaluation process was participatory so as to facilitate lessons learning and apply these to the revised humanitarian strategy for Sida and future humanitarian programming. A key finding of the evaluation is that Sida is a highly respected donor and leader in the humanitarian field. Nevertheless, the evaluation identifies a number of challenges that need to be addressed urgently, including overstretched and overburdened humanitarian staff, which results in a lack of follow up and lessons learning. There are also opportunities for improvements in feeding back field experience for policy and advocacy work as well as developing more strategic relationships with partner organisations. Sida could also do more in making the linkages between humanitarian and development aid more comprehensive and systematic, as well as strengthening the integration of disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness in humanitarian programming.