Results-Based Protection Practitioners' Roundtable Summary Report

There is increasing recognition among humanitarian actors of the need to enhance and demonstrate the impact through protection programming to achieve actual change in people’s lives in terms of reduced risks of violence, coercion, exploitation and deprivation.
Achieving and demonstrating such impact requires better analysis of risk patterns, and better diagnosis of the roles of different actors, in order to undertake context-specific problem-solving, outcome- orientated program design, including advocacy, complementarity among actors, and measurable indicators. In doing so, a results-based approach to protection builds on an evidence-informed framework which enables a focus on outcomes, rather than simply outputs and activities. In addition, a focus on results encourages robust monitoring and evaluation of the impact on people’s lives and, therefore, better fine-tuning of programs and greater overall impact.
Despite extensive literature on results-based approaches, there remains a gap as to what elements are required for results-based protection programming and what methods and tools support the process. While there are examples of effective results-based approaches within the humanitarian community, they are scattered across organizations. There is no coordinated effort to gather good practice and develop relevant guidance to systematize a results-based approach to protection. Practitioners need to grapple with some fundamental questions.