The European Commission Humanitarian Aid department DG ECHO European solidarity with the worlds most vulnerable people

The European Unions mandate to ECHO [Regulation (CE) n° 1257/96] is to provide emergency assistance and relief to the victims of natural disasters or armed conflict outside the European Union.Regulation (CE) n° 1257/96 ECHO mandate

ECHOs Mandate Values: respect for human dignity, solidarity Mandate: save lives, assist the most vulnerable people, victims of natural or man- made disasters Principles: provide free and direct assistance to people in needs, regardless of their race, ethnic group, religion, gender, age, nationality, or political affiliation

Surveillance Mission to the disaster site Disaster Recommendations for ECHO Brussels Decision to release funds Monitoring How do we respond?

Cyclone Nargis Primary Emergency: 2 M Euro Food Aid: 5 M Euro Emergency: 10 M Euro Ad Hoc: 22 M Euro Conflict in Mindanao 8 M Euro Primary Emergency: 2 M Euro Emergency: 7 M Euro Typhoon Ketsana ECHO DEPLOYMENTS in E/SEA and the Pacific 2009 – 2010 European Commission DG-ECHO, Regional Support Office for East and South-East Asia Typhoon Ketsana Primary Emergency: 2 M Euro Emergency Decision: 7 M Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia Earthquake Indonesia Primary Emergency Decision 3 M Euro High Sea Levels Emergency Decision 0.7 M, PNG and Fiji (0.45 M for PNG) Cholera Outbreak- PNG Emergency: 0.65 M Euro Laos : Rodent infestation Emergency Decision 1.5 M Euro Samoa - Tsunami Emergency: 0.15 M Euro Burma/Myanmar Thailand Global Plan: 35.7 M Euro

ECHO operations in East, South East Asia and the Pacific

Working through partners And more…

NEEDS ASSESSMENTs: the challenge Currently: Insufficient experienced human resource capacity to pull together information-gathering efforts Responses often developed without sufficiently comprehensive picture of needs Results in: Fragmented picture of need Significant duplication of time, effort and funds Assessment fatigue amongst beneficiaries

NEEDS ASSESSMENTS: Recurrent issues -Baseline data not up to date -Multiple methodologies but no data comparability -No consensus among field actors, -N.A linked to fundraising, -Potential conflict of interest -Issue in coordination -Non integrated information system -Assessment fatigue -Limited transparency, reliability, credibility and objectivity of sources -Biased information because of access difficulties to certain problem areas -Etc..

NEEDS ASSESSMENTS: The main problems! The lack of a consistent use of common needs assessments, particularly in the initial phases of sudden onset emergencies The lack of a standard template or tool for initial assessments to be used by country teams Ideal situation (CNA) = an assessment carried out by joint teams composed of different cluster representatives, as opposed to assessments carried out by different agencies according to different methodologies, with overlap and contradictions

Objectives Common Needs Assessment: Strengthen coordination amongst donors and partners >>> promote joint needs assessments >>> integrate all resources from different sources! Respect multi sectoral scope Share results and bring results into one master priority list and deduct action plan from this Include capacity of affected population and governments Disconnect assessments from funding requests? >>> Independent assessors? Better Assessments = Better Aid

Global Needs Assessment Framework Phase: 0Phase: 1Phase: 2Phase: 3Phase: 4 Disaster Annual program ming for recovery GNA (ECHO), CIDA (Canada) IPCNAF SPHERE …SMART Humanitarian Dashbord COMMON NEEDS ASSESSMENT (CNA) Common Classification system Data collection tool Common assessment Standards NICS..

INAC: Initial Needs Assessment Checklist

THANK YOU Questions?