Strengthening the quality of evidence in humanitarian evaluations

High-quality, reliable evidence is central to humanitarian action. But what do we mean by ‘good quality evidence’? What makes evidence from across the humanitarian programme cycle credible and of sufficient quality so that different groups of intended users can trust it to inform decision-making and contribute to learning and programme improvement? And what are the ‘qualities’ that are most important?

This paper builds on many of the concepts and ideas discussed ALNAP's Insufficient Evidence? The quality and use of evidence in humanitarian action, specifically focusing on evidence generated through evaluations. We draw on the four previous Evaluation of Humanitarian Action (EHA) method notes (below in related resources) that explore the evidential challenges confronting those who commission and carry out evaluations.