Christian Aid Tsunami Evaluation

Introduction

This report is a synthesis of an evaluation of Christian Aid’s response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26 2004. The evaluation, conducted by five independent consultants, covered the response in India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, as well as Fundraising, Communications, and Advocacy, and a Review of the Management Response in the UK.

The purpose of this report, as defined in the Terms of Reference, is to consolidate in one document all the key findings, conclusions and recommendations and to draw out general lessons that will assist both the final stage of the current Tsunami response and future emergency responses.

Headlines

Unusually for an evaluation exercise of this breadth, the results are strongly positive. The key common elements are the richness and diversity made possible by Christian Aid’s partnership approach. This not only allows for a more locally relevant response, but also greatly facilitates the transition process from relief to recovery, and wider social development. The highlights have been the successful provision of housing, especially for the poorest, and the use of tsunami funds to reduce social exclusion in India. The impact of investments in livelihoods has been more mixed; while more critical questions are raised in relation to psycho-social and disaster risk reduction activities. Largely as a result of the conflict in Sri Lanka, the transition to a successful development phase looks more difficult there than in India or Indonesia.

At the corporate level the setting up of a dedicated Programme Management Unit to co-ordinate the whole response has been very successful. However where this unit has had to rely on other parts of the organisation, as in the case of advocacy and communications, the results have been more mixed.

Secondly there is both praise for, and some criticism of, the work undertaken by the agencies with which Christian Aid entered into ‘Twinning’ arrangements in order to enable a wider group of more specialised agencies to participate in the response to the Tsunami. An underlying theme of the evaluation is the need for Christian Aid to achieve the right balance between decentralisation and the need to follow consistent strategies across the world.