Strength in numbers: a global mapping review of NGO engagement in coordinated assessments

This report maps experience from recent humanitarian responses, distils good practice and analyse lessons learnt from coordinated assessments.

The report reviews the considerable progress that has been made across the burgeoning assessment initiative architecture and uses the growing body of knowledge to make recommendations for how the ECB and broader humanitarian community can focus their efforts in the future.

In seeking to make recommendations for ways to strengthen the practice of coordinated assessments (and in particular the role that the Emergency Capacity Building Project can play), the report summarizes the ideas that were presented to the UN-led Needs Assessment Task Force (NATF) in July 2011 and included:

The ECB Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) makes a considerable contribution to Coordinated Needs Assessments (CAN) and has provided important lessons, but the tool itself and methodology that supports it would benefit from further development. The ECB should commission a technical evaluation of the JNA methodology with a view to understanding its strengths and weaknesses.
The need for contextualisation of the tool has been raised in both the Bolivia and Bangladesh pilot studies, and both country teams are seeking to build broad consensus across the humanitarian community around a single tool. The Indonesia team should prioritise discussions about the adoption of a single tool for all NGO, UN and government stakeholders.
The ECB should have a strategy to promote the use of CNA beyond its 5 pilot countries in order to foster far greater engagement within the NGO (both international and national) sector.
In developing the JNA pilot in Bangladesh and Bolivia, the ECB have taken the important step of exploring strategies of how to promote government participation. With the recruitment of a project manager in Indonesia, it will be important for the ECB agencies to develop a strategy to enhance the participation of the National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB).
The ECB has made an important contribution to CNA through the development of the JNA but outside of the pilot countries, ECB agencies still regularly choose to opt out of CNAs or have uncoordinated assessments as their default mode of responding to crises. Humanitarian leaders of ECB member agencies should use the learning from the JNA to promote CNA practice in new and emerging crises.
Given the ECBs experience in developing ‘the Good Enough Guide to Impact Measurement and Accountability in Emergencies', there is scope for a similar contribution to be made based on experience developing and trialling the JNA and building on the experience of the NATF and ACAPS.