Evaluation of humanitarian assistance in emergency situations - Working Paper 56

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of humanitarian assistance have recently become a topic of academic, practical and political concern. Various factors have led to this increased interest, including a level of disenchantment with results, the lack of organisational and institutional learning, little documented improvement of operations over the years, the ever increasing complexity of emergency situations and their problematic impact on results. Other concerns related to an overall lack of accountability to donors, the public at large and the beneficiaries. Over the last years there has been a number of valuable attempts to discuss these issues and to identify best practices to deal with the subject. This paper reviews current debates and trends and identifies the different approaches that may be deployed to address prevailing shortcomings in humanitarian evaluation.