Presentation by John Mitchell (ALNAP) at ALNAP's 28th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

1. Evidence & knowledge
in humanitarian action
John Mitchell, ALNAP
5 March 2013 l 28th ALNAP Annual Meeting l
Washington DC

2. Why is
EVIDENCE
Quality
Accountability
Understanding
IMPORTANT?

3. What do we mean by
EVIDENCE?

5. EMPIRICISM
T h e e r o altdoe x i s t s
Obs wv r i n
a s a s uo e m e nitv e
Me n r bject
r e a l etr i m e n t i n c t
E x p i y, d i s
f r o p o t h e sos s e r v e r
Hy m ib

6. But empiricism has its
DETRACTORS

8. What do we want
EVIDENCE
FOR? Do we need to intervene?
Will this work?
Is this the best thing to do?

9. Humanitarianism is multidisciplinary.
Is our evidence any good?
Can we have common standards for evidence?

10. We c a m e u p w i t h
FIVE
Truth/accuracy
Representativeness
Significance
Generalisability
Attribution
CRITERIA

11. The context
Baseline data
often not present

12. The context
Access challenges

13. The context
Mobile populations

14. The context
Sensitivity of data in
conflict situations

15. The context
Lack of standard info collection
approaches and formats

16. The context
Atomised system: information in
many places

17. The context

18. HOW ARE WE
DOING?
Needs assessment:
Early warning: more
Evaluation: mainly qualitative;
variety of challenges of
accurate, approaches,
local voices absent;
reliance on of attribution
analysis expert
challenges
knowledge

19. Do we
USE
Evaluations: selective use
Early warning: not always used;
over-reliance on outcome indicators
Policymaking: evidence use
Needs assessment: dependence on
depends on ownership
unrelated factors; monitoring for update
EVIDENCE?

20. Truth/accuracy Representativeness
Empiricist and phenomenological
EVIDENCE
Quality
Accountability
Understanding
used to decide when and how to respond
Significance Generalisability Attribution

21. There are
MORE QUESTIONS
These include…
THAN ANSWERS

22. How can we determine when
evidence is ‘good enough’ in
humanitarian contexts?

23. Does our thinking around
evidence privilege or devalue
certain types of information?

24. What should the relative roles of
research and programme
functions be in building an
evidence base?

25. What can we learn from other
sectors about generation and
use of evidence?

26. What role should evidence play
in decision-making?

27. How can decision-makers
balance different types of
evidence?

28. Bri ngi ng peopl e together
so conversati ons can happen

29. THANK YOU
John Mitchell, ALNAP
5 March 2013 l 28th ALNAP Annual Meeting l
Washington DC