This report provides the summative results from the three-year external impact evaluation of the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) conducted by a team at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI).
From May 2015 to December 2017, RedR UK ran Context, an innovative professional development training programme, in the Middle East and East Africa. The programme was part of the Talent Development project, one of the many projects in the Disasters Emergencies Preparedness Programme . Context - an initiative of the Start Network, led globally by Oxfam GB with the support of UK Aid - is a comprehensive, dynamic staff development programme for humanitarian organisations. It aims to raise standards and quality in future humanitarian responses by building core skills as well as leadership and management capacity among humanitarian staff - especially national staff, who are increasingly at the forefront of humanitarian response. The project uses the Core Humanitarian Competencies Framework (CHCF) to develop staff skills across the wide range of competencies needed to work effectively in the humanitarian sector.
The Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) is a three-year, £40m programme jointly implemented by the Start and CDAC Networks that aims to significantly improve the quality and speed of humanitarian response in countries at risk of natural disasters or conflict related emergencies. This programme is very much aligned with sector-wide discussions around the need to shift the focus of aid investment towards crises prevention, preparedness and building national humanitarian capacity in order to reduce the damage caused by disasters. In the past year, the DEPP has transitioned from its initial set-up phase to active implementation, and projects are now beginning to collect evidence around the many successes, challenges and results of their activities. This year’s DEPP Learning Report, produced by the DEPP Learning Project at Action Against Hunger, explores the extent to which the programme is leading to the changes it has set out to make. It does this by highlighting examples of key learning, reflections, successes and challenges from the 14 projects that make up the DEPP. This piece is aimed at both DEPP stakeholders as well as other humanitarian actors with a vested interest in emergency preparedness and response.
This report captures the learning that is emerging so far from the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme.
The current international humanitarian system, dominated by large international organisations, is being stretched to its limit. Dealing with growing frequency, unpredictability and complexity of emergencies, it appears increasingly unfit to deal with these challenges, let alone address future ones. One opportunity to address these is getting the balance right between international and local response.
