Description of project

The evaluation sought to learn from the important operation of the Spanish Red Cross (SRC) in the December 2004 tsunami hit areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The evaluation covered three projects of housing construction in Kalutara (Sri Lanka), Aceh Barat and Nias island (Indonesia), with the goals of assessing the overall performance of SRC projects and extracting lessons learned for future interventions. Moreover, it was perceived as an exercise of accountability before donors, public opinion, and other relevant actors.

The evaluation criteria used were relevance, design effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability and replicability, using summative and formative approaches combined.

The overall budget of the projects assessed is 4,689,727.13 €, and they implemented housing construction using varied approaches to building and management methods.

The evaluation was carried out by a mixed team, with a SRC member and a DARA leader. The services provided include:

• Preliminary phase: gather and refine informative needs of SRC stakeholders; define evaluation methodology and plan, preliminary interviews, desk review.

• Field phase in Sri Lanka, Aceh Barat and Nias: questionnaires and focus groups with beneficiaries and host communities (in case of relocations), interviews with SRC Sri Lankan Red Cross Society, Indonesian Red Crescent IFRC, and other organisations’ staff, as well as Government officials. Overall, 75 interviews were conducted.

• Reporting phase, including presentation of preliminary findings at the end of each field visit, and in SRC HQ in Madrid for feedback; public presentation of results at the December 2008 SRC Delegates meeting; and drafting of preliminary and final evaluation reports.