Inter-Agency Real Time Evaluation (IA RTE) of The Humanitarian Response to Pakistan’s 2009 Displacement Crisis

This is the report of the Real Time Evaluation of the International Humanitarian Community?s response to the 2009 and 2010 Internally Displaced Person (IDP) crisis in Pakistan. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) commissioned the evaluation and it was undertaken by a team of three evaluators in May and June of 2010.
This was a humanitarian response set against the backdrop of a very complex environment, in which the Government of Pakistan (referred to as the Government from here on) reluctantly mobilised the military to reassert control of the national territory. Given that the primary driving force of the military operation was the re-establishment of sovereignty, and that underlying causes of the security problems included international factors, it was not surprising that the GoP constrained the response of international humanitarian organisations.
The overall response was a success in which the international community played a key role. There was no large-scale death or disease outbreak even though millions of people fled from their homes in a very short time frame. There were a number of innovative features in the response, including relatively rapid registration and verification and the use of smart cards for distributing cash assistance. The population of the IDP inflow areas, and of Pakistan as a whole, played a major role in the response as did the Government.