John Mitchell, ALNAP

E v i d e n c e & k n o w l e d g e

i n h u m a n i t a r i a n a c t i o n

5 March 2013 l 28th ALNAP Annual Meeting l Washington DC

EVIDENCE

IMPORTANT?

QualityAccountabilityUnderstanding

Why is

EVIDENCE?What do we mean by

E M P I R I C I S MThe wor ld ex is ts

as an object ive

real i ty, d is t inct

f rom the observer

Observat ion

Measurement

Exper iment

Hypothesis

DETRACTORSBut empir ic ism has i ts

EVIDENCEWhat do we want

FOR?Do we need to intervene?Will this work?Is this the best thing to do?

Is our evidence any good?Can we have common standards for evidence?

Humanitarianism is multidisciplinary.

FIVEWe came up wi th

CRITERIA

Truth/accuracyRepresentativenessSignificanceGeneralisabilityAttribution

T h e c o n t e x t

B a s e l i n e d a t a

o f t e n n o t p r e s e n t

T h e c o n t e x t

A c c e s s c h a l l e n g e s

T h e c o n t e x t

M o b i l e p o p u l a t i o n s

T h e c o n t e x t

S e n s i t i v i t y o f d a t a i n

c o n f l i c t s i t u a t i o n s

T h e c o n t e x t

L a c k o f s t a n d a r d i n f o c o l l e c t i o n

a p p r o a c h e s a n d f o r m a t s

T h e c o n t e x t

A t o m i s e d s y s t e m : i n f o r m a t i o n i n

m a n y p l a c e s

T h e c o n t e x t

HOW ARE WEDOING?

Early warning: more

accurate, challenges of

analysis

Needs assessment:

variety of approaches,

reliance on expert

knowledge

Evaluation: mainly qualitative;

local voices absent;

challenges of attribution

USEDo we

EVIDENCE?

Early warning: not always used;

over-reliance on outcome indicators

Needs assessment: dependence on

unrelated factors; monitoring for update

Evaluations: selective use

Policymaking: evidence use

depends on ownership

QualityAccountabilityUnderstandingEVIDENCE

Empir ic is t and phenomenologica l

used to dec ide when and how to respond

Truth/accuracy Representativeness

Significance Generalisability Attribution

There are

MORE QUESTIONS

THAN ANSWERS

These include…

How can we determine when

evidence is ‘good enough’ in

humanitarian contexts?

Does our thinking around

evidence privilege or devalue

certain types of information?

What should the relative roles of

research and programme

functions be in building an

evidence base?

What can we learn from other

sectors about generation and

use of evidence?

What role should evidence play

in decision-making?

How can decision-makers

balance different types of

evidence?

Bringing people together

so conversat ions can happen

John Mitchell, ALNAP

THANK YOU

5 March 2013 l 28th ALNAP Annual Meeting l Washington DC