Desk Review on UNICEF Humanitarian Response Capacity

The objectives of this desk review have been, firstly, to review the evaluative conclusions and lessons on programmatic and operational strengths and weaknesses in UNICEF’s capacity to respond to humanitarian crisis throughout the previous decade. Secondly, the review has sought to summarise the evolution of policy and procedural changes undertaken by the organisation to improve its humanitarian response. Thirdly, through a comparison between the first and second exercises, the desk review was to call attention to how fully UNICEF has drawn on a decade of evaluative conclusions in making changes to policy, programming and operations. The comparison between what formal and informal evaluations have said about UNICEF’s performance in humanitarian crises, and how UNICEF has responded with programming and procedural changes, was expected to suggest “what broad conclusions and lessons can then be drawn on programmatic and operational improvements, strengths and remaining gaps in UNICEF humanitarian response.”