Well this is really an important moment when you can ask what happened and why in any particular humanitarian aid evaluation, and this is technically what evaluation is in this context, is to say, can we conduct an assessment that is systematic? That is impartial and objective as possible? – that will really give us information about how we can really improve policy and practice, and how we can make the whole of the humanitarian aid system more accountable to both the people who give the money, the people who implement, and also of course to the beneficiaries in whose name these actions are taken.

Why are they important now?

We know the number of these humanitarian disasters is tragically going up. We also know that this is partly due to climate change so we can anticipate that the money available in these tight economic times is going to be even tighter. And that means that we’ve got to look for efficiencies in the way humanitarian aid is delivered.

How can evaluations foster change?

What I think is the most important thing about evaluation is the process itself. Is how we’re using the evaluation team to really hold up a mirror to the busy actors on the ground to say, look this is what’s really happening. And I think this is why it’s so important to have impartial, independent evaluation.

And the beneficiaries?

Often we see the beneficiary as the passive recipient of these interventions. And often the vulnerable people who are enduring the worst of these crises are actually the most powerful people to feed back lessons and ideas about how things could be done better. And evaluation gives them a chance to make their voice heard.