Impact Measurement and Accountability in Emergencies

This guide was developed by the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB), a collaborative effort by CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam GB, Save the Children, and World Vision International. It offers a set of guidelines on how to be accountable to local people and measure programme impact in emergency situations. According to the publisher: "This pocket guide presents... methods for putting impact measurement and accountability into practice throughout the life of a project. It is aimed at humanitarian practitioners, project officers and managers with some experience in the field, and draws on the work of field staff, [non-governmental organisations] NGOs, and inter-agency initiatives..."

The guide contains:

• Preface: the Basic Elements of Accountability and Impact Measurement
• What is...? Some definitions
• Why and how to use the Good Enough Guide
• Involve people at every stage
• Profile the people affected by the emergency
• Identify the changes people want to see
• Track changes and make feedback a two-way process
• Use feedback to improve project impact
• Tools:
  1. How to introduce your agency: a need-to-know checklist
  2. How accountable are you? Checking public information
  3. How to involve people throughout the project
  4. How to profile the affected community and assess initial needs
  5. How to conduct an individual interview
  6. How to conduct a focus group
  7. How to decide whether to do a survey
  8. How to assess child protection needs
  9. How to observe
  10. How to start using indicators
  11. How to hold a lessons-learned meeting
  12. How to set up a complaints and response mechanism
  13. How to give a verbal report
  14. How to say goodbye
• Other accountability initiatives
• Sources, further information and abbreviations

Please note: Special discounts are available for bulk orders from humanitarian, non-profit organisations. Contact Oxfam Publishing, publish@oxfam.org.uk for more details.