Network Paper 67: Evidence-Based Decision-Making in Humanitarian Assistance

Author(s)
Bradt, D.A.
Publication language
English
Pages
30pp
Date published
01 Dec 2009
Publisher
Humanitarian Practice Network
Type
Research, reports and studies
Keywords
Coordination, Logistics, Research methodology, Urban
Organisations
ODI

 

In brief
• Data limitations in humanitarian crises have
led to an increasing number of initiatives to
improve information and decision-making in
humanitarian assistance. These initiatives are,
however, beset with fundamental problems,
including the definitions of key terms,
conceptual ambiguity, a lack of
standardisation in methods of data collection
and an absence of systematic attempts to
strengthen the capacity of field organisations
to collect and analyse data.
• This paper presents an overview of evidencebased
decision-making in technical sectors of
humanitarian assistance. The goal of the paper
is to provide a common understanding of key
concepts in evidence-based decision-making
in order to stimulate a discussion of evidence
within the humanitarian community.
• The paper highlights key concepts in evidencebased
practices, examines recommendations
from recent published humanitarian reviews,
and presents options to strengthen evidencebased
decision-making in the design,
implementation and evaluation of humanitarian
assistance.
• The paper concludes that evidence-based
decision-making often requires no additional
scientific data per se, but rather an understanding
of well-established technical best practices in
conjunction with financial resources and political
will.