Preparing for Emergencies by strengthening Organisational Procedures, Learning and Exchange (PEOPLE) Project – final evaluation

The PEOPLE project engaged ten partners over two years, with the aim of strengthening capacity to prepare for and respond to humanitarian crises. The most notable results seen through this project are the improvements in volunteer management practice, which in turn contribute to partners’ emergency response capacity.

PEOPLE’s approach to capacity strengthening is based on CAFOD’s tried and tested model, tweaked based on learning from previous projects. Importantly, PEOPLE used a variety of approaches which complemented and built on each other. These approaches combined exposing partners to new knowledge (via trainer of trainers and webinars), with ‘seeing in practice’ (via the peer-exchange visits), supported by having resources available as needed (including grants, accompaniment throughout by one of CAFOD’s Humanitarian Capacity Strengthening Officers (HCSO), and access to example materials such as policies and guidelines). New capacity strengthening approaches (including the use of webinars, more formal mentoring, and an on-line community of practice) were also trialled, generating useful learning and adding to the suite of approaches that can be used by CAFOD and partners.