Enhancing disaster and emergency preparedness, response, and recovery through evaluation

The authors offer a conceptual framework explicating how evaluation can enhance disaster and emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. The phases of preparedness, response, and recovery in any disaster situation are connected to who has responsibility for the evaluation and how the evaluation will be used. The complexity of the relationships among these diverse elements suggests that evaluation in this domain needs to be flexible and strategic to be beneficial. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association.