technical tool

Psychosocial Intervention in Complex Emergencies: A Framework for Practice

This working paper sets about developing a common framework that summarises key knowledge in the field of psychosocial interventions in emergencies in order to provide agencies with some tools’ for making decisions about the type of interventions they can implement.
In this framework psychosocial well-being of individuals and of the larger social units is seen to be affected by three key issues: human capacity, social ecology, and culture and values: human capacity includes the physical and mental health of a person, as well as his or her knowledge and skills social ecology refers to the social connections and support that people share and that form an important part of psychosocial well-being culture and values points to the specific context and culture of communities that influence how people experience, understand and respond to events. These three areas are all inter-related and changes in one area will affect the other areas as well as the overall well-being of people

Towards a Comprehensive Approach of Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Needs of Women Displaced by War and Armed Conflict: A Practical Guide for Programme Officers

Evidence review
Technical tool

For some years, awareness about the need for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for women in situations of war and armed conflict has been growing. As a result, humanitarian aid programmes are paying more and more attention to the provision of SRH services in the field, but a more holistic and integrated approach to SRH is often still lacking.
This guide has been developed as a practical tool for programme officers in humanitarian aid to screen programmes and policies in order to promote a more integrated approach of SRH. It is the result of an interdisciplinary policy research project for the Belgian Development Co-operation, which highlights SRH from a human rights approach. It includes medical aspects of SRH and also emphasises the need to develop an enabling political, legal, social and cultural environment.

Group dialogue and critical reflection of HIV prevention: an evaluation of the C-Change Community Conversation Toolkit

Tools
Technical tool

Communication for Change (C-Change) set out to develop support tools that would foster interactive communication among low-literacy adults and prompt engagement on HIV prevention issues, including encouraging individual and group-oriented problem solving. The Community Conversation Toolkit (CCT) was developed using participatory approaches with lower literacy audiences and was extensively pre-tested in southern and eastern Africa. The CCT is a social and behavior change communication (SBCC) resource that comprises a set of interactive communication components including role play cards, throw cubes, playing cards, dialogue buttons, finger puppets, and guides for facilitation and community mobilization. The CCT has been adapted for use in seven countries and is available in ten languages.This evaluation report looked at whether this toolkit elicited changes in behaviour and practices by participants around HIV prevention, and whether the processes of reflection and problem solving led to community-level action for HIV-prevention-related change.

Still Left in the Dark? How People in Emergencies Use Communication to Survive – and How Humanitarian Agencies Can Help

Evidence review
Technical tool

In 2008, a BBC World Service Trust policy briefing argued that people affected by earthquakes, floods or other emergencies often lacked the information they needed to survive and that this only added to their stress and anxiety. Left in the Dark: the unmet need for information in humanitarian emergencies maintained that humanitarian agencies were increasingly effective and coordinated in getting food, water, shelter and medical help to people affected by disasters, but were neglecting the need to get often life-saving information to them.
Unquestionably, the biggest single change in the communications sector since the 2008 Left in the Dark paper has been the explosion in access to communications technology among communities affected by disaster. As a result, this is the focus of this paper.

A Practitioner’s Guide for Facilitating People Centred Adaptation: Participatory Adaptation Handbook

Evidence review
Technical tool

This book has been compiled by a group of practitioners from South Africa, Ethiopia and Germany, and draws on our collective experiences in supporting local communities in adapting to increasing climatic variability and change. The authors have written this book to meet the widely expressed need amongst practitioners for a comprehensive tool that will support practical adaptation interventions. If you are engaged in supporting members of communities affected by rapid environmental or other forms of disruptive change, this book will provide you with useful insights and practical approaches and tools that can be used to enable them to adapt more effectively.
The approach taken in this book is rooted in Participatory Action Research (PAR), which recognises that the people who are affected (in this instance) by climate variability and change are not only primarily responsible for determining and implementing responses within their own enterprises and communities,

WHO Emergency Reform Consultation Workshop Community Engagement

Technical tool

Community Engagement has been identified as a cross-cutting priority in WHO`s Emergency Reform agenda as outlined in WHO Emergency Reform: Roadmap for Action. The report serves as a blueprint for the reform process and calls for a plan/strategy with “operational capacity for effective community engagement, including work in outbreaks and other health emergencies” is required as part of the Roadmap.To this end, the workshop aimed to clarify WHO’s role in community engagement in outbreaks and emergencies.
The planned outputs and outcomes of the workshop were to obtain:i. Agreement on the scope of community engagement and related approaches in the context of outbreaks and health emergencies ii. Inputs for WHO’s role and functions in community engagement (and related fields) in outbreaks and emergencies iii. Identify linkages to be made with emergency risk communication iv. Recommendations for improving coordination of community engagement interventions during outbreaks and health emergencies v.

Coordinated Assessments in Emergencies – What We Know Now: Key Lessons from Field Experience

Evidence review
Technical tool

This document uses lessons learned from recent coordinated assessments to distil key points,advice, and pitfalls in carrying out a Coordinated Assessment during the first weeks of a disaster. It provides a general introduction to what has been learned about coordinated assessments in terms of what works and what does not.
As such, it is aimed towards humanitarian personnel responding to or preparing for emergencies both at field and headquarters level.

Call Detail Records: The Use of Mobile Phone Data to Track and Predict Population Displacement in Disasters

Evidence review
Technical tool

Information about the displacement of people after disasters is crucial in determining the scale and impact of the emergency, and is vital for conducting humanitarian needs assessment on the ground. Methods to forecast or detect such migration are however very limited at present. The use of geo-referenced mobile phone call data to understand post-disaster movements of affected people has been demonstrated in two studies, in the aftermath of the Haiti (2010) and Christchurch, New Zealand (2011) earthquakes.
These studies, matched against aid agencies’ recurring information needs in disaster response operations, suggest that this type of data has potential to be a useful new method to forecast and locate people who have been displaced and therefore in need.

Scenario Development

Briefing
Technical tool

A scenario projects alternative ways in which a situation might evolve. It is a set of informed assumptions about a situation that may require humanitarian action. Building scenarios involves speculating about an uncertain future and envisaging different possible outcomes for a given initial situation.
When applied to the framework of a needs assessment,scenarios are used to plan for possible future humanitarian crises and needs.

How Sure Are You? Judging Quality and Usability of Data Collected during Rapid Needs Assessments

Evidence review
Technical tool

The objective of this technical brief is to provide guidance on how you could assess the quality of information used as evidence for decision making during humanitarian needs assessments. It aims to assist analysts in understanding the distinction between sources and information, assessing the quality of different data types (primary and secondary data), and using appropriate criteria for judging information generated through quantitative or qualitative research methods.
It suggests way sof dealing with inconsistent information and offers advice on how to use evidence, establish confidence in findings and, communicate uncertainty.

Estimation of Affected Population Figures

Evidence review
Technical tool

This Technical Brief is for assessment experts, information management officers and information analysts planning or implementing assessments in emergency contexts. It provides guidance on how to select and use suitable methods when conducting a population estimation exercise.This technical brief builds upon the desk review Rapid estimation of affected population figures, which has identified and detailed a broad range of different population estimation methods.
These methods are categorised by sampling methods, site estimation methods,counting methods, remote estimation methods and the usage of existing demographic data. It is recommended to use the above mentioned review as a reference for more in-depth information about the different techniques described in the present document. The present technical brief should be considered as a companion to the review.

Quick and Easy Guide: Assessing Information & Communications Needs Booklet

Evidence review
Technical tool

Humanitarian needs assessments are carried out to determine the immediate needs of a population following an emergency or humanitarian crises.
Once an assessment has been carried out and data has been analysed, humanitarian organisations can make key decisions about their operational response including their goals, intended programmes and fundraising plans.

Secondary Data Review Sudden Onset Natural Disasters

Evidence review
Technical tool

The aim of these guidelines is to describe the systematic development of an SDR during the initial days and weeks after a disaster.
It is based on ACAPS’ experience in developingSecondary Data Reviews for a number of Sudden Onset Disasters over three years.

Demographic Profile: Using Secondary Data

Evidence review
Technical tool

The purpose of this technical brief is to assist humanitarian workers in using secondary demographic data in emergencies. It recommends building a context specific demographic profile based on available information. It proposes some rule-of-thumb standards, which can be adapted to the local context, tailoring to the purpose and the time available.
The document provides: 1. Long term guidance sheets (if you have a few days): identifying demographic ‘mega trends’, and possible interactions with disaster risk, impact and response. This broader perspective is essential for interpreting data in emergencies, and as input for longer term strategy (e.g. CAP orSRP) 2. Short term quick start (if you have an hour):accessing demographic data for immediate operational needs in a specific emergency,such as input in a flash appeal (e.g. within24-48 hours).Clearly, this supplements, rather than replaces,the need for primary data, but is intended to be helpful in preparing for large scale primary data collection,

Rapid Humanitarian Assessment in Urban Settings

Evidence review
Technical tool

This Technical Brief is intended to be a starting point for improving coordinated needs assessments in urban areas, without which the humanitarian community will not be able to ensure the quality and accountability of urban response itself. It provides guidance on carrying out joint rapid assessments of humanitarian needs in urban environments within the first weeks of a disaster.
Organisations can use this Brief to ensure that joint assessments are carried out appropriately in urban areas, and to update their assessment practice. The Brief does not cover more comprehensive or in-depth sectoral assessments that may take place in the longer-term, although the issues discussed are the same and many of the principles are still applicable. It does not provide sector-specific guidance, and does not focus on the needs of specific groups (such as women or the elderly),but it does list references and resources that provide this detail.

Lessons Learned: Social Media Monitoring during Humanitarian Crises 

Evidence review
Technical tool

Monitoring of social media conversations in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake was found mainly to be useful in two ways:
1. Analysing public reactions to media reports: The data enabled the team and clients to see which issues were widely discussed, and whether these conversations led to sustained discussion or merely short-term spikes. (See detailed example in Annex 1.)
2. Seeing the relative prevalence of topics and identifying changes: Where a pure quantitative analysis can only show that a certain area of discussion is gaining or losing volume, a qualitative analysis was able to identify which sub-topics gained importance. For example, a shift in conversation from response-related topics towards reconstruction.

Questionnaire Design for Needs Assessments in Humanitarian Emergencies

Briefing
Evidence review

The brief starts with an explanation of the main purpose of a questionnaire and the principles that should be followed to reach these objectives. Afterwards, the ten steps of questionnaire development are discussed. The brief concludes with sections on what to keep in mind specifically when designing a questionnaire and individual questions. It focuses on questionnaire design for interviewer administered (as opposed to self-administered) surveys, as this is the most common approach used in humanitarian emergencies. However, Section two briefly touches upon the impact of different survey modes on questionnaire format and wording.
This brief focuses on how to gather the information required; it does not provide recommendations on what information should be collected. In addition, the design, roll-out and ultimately the success of an assessment involves much more than designing a questionnaire. It includes deciding the sampling strategy, arranging logistics,

Severity Measures in Humanitarian Needs Assessments – Purpose, Measurement, Integration

Evidence review
Technical tool

Severity is a key parameter in humanitarian decision making. “Severe” is part of ordinary language; “severity” more institutional. We make absolute statements (“The patient is in asevere condition”) as well as comparative ones (“The townspeople are even more severely impacted than the farmers”). The bases of such judgments are not always clear. By contrast,needs assessments in humanitarian action strive to define severity measures that are transparent, tightly related to needs concepts, and fit to support valid comparisons.The function of severity measures is to substantiate priorities that, together with parameters like access and cost, guide decisions on the humanitarian response. Severity measures condense, in one number or one verbal scale, elements that influence judgments on priority – elements that are conceptually different, or arrive from separate information sources.
Such constructs have been around for several decades, at first in public health.The humanitarian community developed its own gradually,

Scenario Building in Preparation for or during Humanitarian Crises

Briefing
Technical tool

The humanitarian community often finds itself unprepared for unfolding humanitarian developments or sudden events: the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti and the sudden spread of Islamic State areas of control in 2013 in Syria are just two of the many examples. Scenario building, an analysis of how situations might evolve, is an essential part of humanitarian operations as it informs contingency planning and preparedness measures ahead of possible developments. It can also help to ensure programming is sufficiently robust to withstand changes in the operational environment. During a separate contingency planning exercise, appropriate preparedness measures and detailed response plans are developed, based on the existing and possible future capacity to respond to the identified scenarios.
During scenario building the range of plausible developments, their predicted impact on the people affected, and the related needs are identified. Scenario building covers a range of activities including:o Risk analysis: the identification and impact of a probability of damage,

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