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Self Report 2017

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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2A
Respect and protect civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of hostilities

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility
  • The ALNAP Secretariat commits to achieving a stronger evidence base to inform programming and decision making on protection, first by developing and piloting the first ever guide to evaluating humanitarian protection by 2018, and second by working with the ICRC and other agencies involved in updating the monitoring and evaluation chapter of the Professional Standards for protection work.
  • Operational
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

Core Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Core Responsibility
  • Commit to promote and enhance the protection of civilians and civilian objects, especially in the conduct of hostilities, for instance by working to prevent civilian harm resulting from the use of wide-area explosive weapons in populated areas, and by sparing civilian infrastructure from military use in the conduct of military operations.
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    After conducting initial research and member consultation, the ALNAP Secretariat identified a gap in the provision of strong evidence to inform protection programming and decision-making. In response, the Secretariat committed to build the evidence base by improving evaluation standards relating to protection activities.

  • Achievements at a glance

    ALNAP has developed the first ever guide to evaluating humanitarian protection, and begun piloting and feedback with member agencies. This included the publication and dissemination of the pilot guide, the conduct of feedback interviews with members, hosting/attending two workshops with both protection and evaluation practitioners, road testing the guide in one protection evaluation and commencing work on a second piloting test. ALNAP has also communicated with the ICRC and other agencies involved in updating the monitoring and evaluation chapter of the Professional Standards for protection work, and hosted one workshop focused on the revisions to the related chapter on the management of protection.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    Progress on specific activities is assessed through reporting to the ALNAP steering committee. Uptake of the guide and usage in protection evaluations is discussed through individual member feedback.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    The piloting of the protection guide is dependent on adequate uptake and feedback on the guide from member agencies. This challenge has been addressed through dissemination of the guide via the ALNAP evaluation community of practice and wider membership base. Engagement of key protection actors and mandated agencies is encouraged through direct contact.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    Further pilot tests of the protection guide, continuation of the feedback activities, and synthesis into a finalised protection guide to be published in 2017. Further contact with ICRC regarding the revisions to the monitoring and evaluation chapter of the protection standards will be ongoing.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Social protection

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑4C - Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

4C
Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility

  • The ALNAP Secretariat commits to incorporating the themes from the World Humanitarian Summit commitments into its 2018 SOHS report, examining the relationship between these themes and any measured changes in humanitarian performance over time. The report will support a better understanding of any improvements that emerge from the WHS and to what extent progress is being made across the core commitments.


  • Policy
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • ALNAP commits to furthering a humanitarian understanding of urban contexts through original research which looks at how humanitarians understand urban systems and stakeholders, and through supporting the work of ALNAP members and other humanitarian actors.


  • Operational
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • ALNAP commits to working with the Global Alliance for Urban Crises to harness ALNAP's existing digital community of practice, online portal and webinar series and expand the reach and accessibility of these mechanisms, in order to meet the growing needs around evidence and knowledge management for humanitarian action in urban contexts.


  • Operational
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • ALNAP will continue to support the humanitarian community, and in particular the Global Clusters and those elements of the humanitarian system concerned with the coordination of humanitarian action, by undertaking research and convening events to address the main constraints to effective coordination. ALNAP will make concrete recommendations for improving coordination before the end of 2016, and will work with key stakeholders to support the implementation of these recommendations.


  • Policy
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • Since its inception in 1997, ALNAP has been supporting system-wide humanitarian learning through its Humanitarian Evaluation and Learning Portal (HELP) which is the largest and most comprehensive humanitarian knowledge bank of its kind, currently with 10,904 unique resources. In order to meet the increasing knowledge demands for the future of humanitarian action, ALNAP commits to updating the HELP with an enhanced digital platform for more intuitive searching and information sharing.


  • Operational
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • The ALNAP Secretariat commits to achieving better utilisation and quality of evidence from evaluations, through two concrete actions: 1) continuing to develop, pilot and disseminate comprehensive guidance material on evaluation of humanitarian action for the benefit of the whole humanitarian sector, 2) facilitating peer-learning exchanges and the sharing of good practice examples across all types of humanitarian agencies.


  • Policy
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    ALNAP's mission is to contribute to better system-wide accountability and performance through collective learning. ALNAP's commitments reflect a sub-set of the ALNAP Secretariat's workplan and aim to address practice and policy gaps in the following areas: Knowledge management and research to support effective urban response; concrete approaches to improving the effectiveness and local relevance of humanitarian coordination mechanisms; improving the availability and use of quality research, evaluations and evidence for humanitarian policy; improving system-wide understanding of the performance of international humanitarian assistance.

  • Achievements at a glance

    Achievements include:
    - Published the Evaluating Humanitarian Action guide, a core reference for designing and implementing high quality evaluations of humanitarian programming.
    - Convened a meeting of 50 coordination experts from across the humanitarian sector and beyond to identify recommendations for improving humanitarian coordination mechanisms.
    - Delivered 8 webinars with a total of over 2,000 participants to share learning on urban response, coordination and the use of evidence for humanitarian practice and policy.
    - Designed new methods and began research for the 2018 State of the Humanitarian System report, including a component to identify a sub-set of outcomes of the World Humanitarian Summit.
    - Began the process to redesign the Humanitarian Evaluation and Learning Portal, which serves as a central repository for evaluations and other learning references for humanitarian actors.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    The ALNAP Secretariat assesses two types of progress in its work. Progress in implementation of activities and achieving deliverables is assessed regularly through quarterly review and reporting to our Steering Committee. Progress in influencing collective learning and performance is assessed across each area of work using the ALNAP Impact log, which lists indicators under each of the four categories: Quality, Awareness, Engagement and Uptake.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    No challenges of note faced thus far.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    ALNAP will continue to implement its workplan, which includes conducting primary research for the State of the Humanitarian System report and the launch of a new online portal for all evaluations, research and other references relevant to supporting high quality humanitarian action. ALNAP will also continue to organise webinars to support the awareness and accessibility of evidence for humanitarian action and will disseminate the EHA guide for wide use by evaluators. In support of the commitments on urban and coordination, ALNAP will produce 2 reports based on original research for improving urban response and coordination.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Urban

  • Specific initiatives

    ☑Global Alliance for Urban Crises

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑4A - Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems