Basic information on the humanitarian system remains unknown
July 8th, 2009
GLOBAL: Aid worker, rate thyself
JOHANNESBURG, - If you are an aid worker and have an opinion on how poorly funded your organization is, how competent your fellow aid workers are or how well the international humanitarian system works with local authorities, ALNAP needs you.
Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN 
Basic information on the humanitarian system remains unknown
A "state of the humanitarian system" review is being led by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP), a UK-based network.
Despite various evaluations and analyses of the humanitarian system some "very basic information" on its size, reach, scope of action and capability remains unknown, said Paul Harvey, a humanitarian aid expert leading the review for ALNAP.
Harvey is a partner in Humanitarian Outcomes, a consultancy that will compile some measures of the composition and performance of the international humanitarian system, providing a baseline for assessing future progress.
"Clearly, this is an ambitious undertaking and there's a need for careful modesty about what this review will be able to achieve," said the survey inception paper by Harvey in partnership with Adele Harmer, Abby Stoddard and Glyn Taylor.
Clearly, this is an ambitious undertaking and there's a need for careful modesty about what this review will be able to achieve
The research will include an analysis of basic statistics on funding; profiles of implementing agencies and numbers of aid workers; interviews with about one hundred purposively selected key informants; a survey of aid worker perceptions of the performance of humanitarian aid; and a synthesis of issues and findings from recent evaluations and other humanitarian literature.
The report will provide a descriptive mapping, a general performance assessment, and an analysis of major new developments in the humanitarian aid sector over the past three years.
If you are an aid worker you can contribute to the survey online.
A French version can be accessed at www.zoomerang.com.
jk/he/bp source.www.irinnews.org