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16 October 2006

TEC Update 11

Dear Colleagues,

This latest TEC Update has been timed to bring you news of considerable activity by TEC Member Agencies and TEC Partners. This activity has mostly been concerned with disseminating and communicating TEC findings and recommendations and many TEC agencies have held workshops to discuss the TEC's findings and recommendations and consider the implications for their own policy and practice. (See Jan Egeland's Keynote Address on the importance of taking TEC lessons and recommendations forward at: http://www.tsunami-evaluation.org/NR/rdonlyres/71DA971F-CDE7-4956-8EC9-5158C54BEDE7/0/egeland_transcript.pdf )

Other ongoing work includes:

· TEC CMG agency AIDMI (All India Disaster Mitigation Institute), with the support of the TEC team in London, has started work to ensure dissemination and follow-up in the affected region. Work will concentrate on issues of particular interest to the region, both in supporting current recovery and mitigating negative impacts of future hazards: mainstreaming DRR in institutions and recovery; supporting local coping capacities; and linking relief, rehabilitation and development.

· The TEC continues to draw lessons on its practice and the CMG held another After Action Review in September. We will shortly be issuing a short email survey to establish how other members and supporters have experienced the TEC.

· Work continues on producing the summary version of the Synthesis Report as well as the translated materials to help dissemination and follow-up in the tsunami-affected countries.

Communicating TEC Findings

TEC communication is following a decentralised model with TEC member agency representatives taking a lead role in communicating TEC findings both within their own agencies as well as to wider audiences in their respective countries. All those involved in communicating TEC findings are concerned to optimise their utilisation. This not only involves getting the right information to the right people in a timely fashion and an appropriate format, but also the design and implementation of a follow-up strategy facilitated centrally by ALNAP and regionally by AIDMI (see below).

Broadly speaking, TEC communication is focused at three levels: global, regional, and national / local, where global is understood to refer to donor and other countries outside of the tsunami-affected region. In order to work effectively across these levels, communication is being implemented through two parallel but connected streams of work. Stream 1, focused at the global, system-wide level and primarily facilitated by the TEC team at ALNAP, and Stream 2, which constitutes formally coordinated work at the regional and national / local level. This is being facilitated by CMG member AIDMI, and funding is currently being sought to support this work over the longer term. For more information please contact Rachel Houghton, TEC Coordinator ([email protected]) or Mihir Bhatt, Honorary Director of AIDMI ([email protected]).

Keeping us Informed

The TEC Diary of Events shows some of the activity that has been taking place since September, as well as displays key events in the future. Log onto the TEC website: http://www.tsunami-evaluation.org/Introduction+to+the+TEC/TEC+Events+Diary.htm Please keep us informed of any events you are holding or events that you attend on the TEC. The person to email is Olivia Hirst: [email protected]

A selection of forthcoming events include:

A series of TEC workshops in Australia
A discussion of the Synthesis Report findings and LRRD thematic evaluation at the Plan International Asia Regional Conference, and a workshop organised by Plan in Sri Lanka for its local partners
Sharing learning on the TEC process at the American Evaluation Association annual conference
Presentation of TEC findings relevant for INGOs at InterAction in the US
Presentation of the TEC joint evaluation process to the evaluation group of the DAC
A series of workshops in the affected region (led by AIDMI)
Work with the ProVention Consortium Regional Forums in Africa to share learning with regard to recovery and disaster risk reduction

Working with Key Partners

In addition to working with those key partners indicated in the list above, in recent weeks the TEC has been working closely with the Special Envoy/NGO Impact Initiative. Launched in April 2006 in consultation with President Clinton, UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, the aim of this initiative is to review major challenges faced by INGOs relative to the relief and recovery efforts in tsunami-affected countries. Five working groups formed around the issues of accountability to beneficiaries, enhancing local capacity, professionalism, coordination and human rights, and the TEC has been feeding into these groups providing substantive feedback based on the findings and recommendations contained in our thematic evaluation and synthesis reports. After global consultations at field, US and European HQ level, the Initiative is poised to make concrete recommendations for action intended to improve INGO work in crisis and recovery, which will be presented to the Special Envoy at the end of October. For more information please contact:

Nazaré Albuquerque

Strategic Partnerships Advisor for NGOs and Civil Society

Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery (OSE)

United Nations

Tel: 212.906.6905

Cell: 917.291.2989

Fax: 212.906.6910

E-mail: [email protected]

TEC Regional Dissemination and Follow-up

The TEC synthesis report emphasises the importance of more rigorous efforts among responding agencies to both support local response capacities and 'build back better'. Moreover, the implementation and follow-up guide to the Hyogo Framework for Action ( http://www.unisdr.org/eng/hfa/docs/Hyogo-framework-for-action-english.pdf) states that strengthening regional capacities is vital, and calls for regional initiatives' support in publishing reviews on DRR processes and establishing specialised regional collaboration centres. Such initiatives of South-South learning will demonstrate good DRR, recovery, and post-evaluation practice among key regional and national leaders.

The TEC CMG has endorsed that fellow CMG member AIDMI spearhead one such regional initiative to take relevant TEC lessons and recommendations 'down to earth' at national and local level. Work will concentrate on issues of particular interest to the region, both in supporting current recovery and mitigating negative impacts of future hazards: mainstreaming DRR in institutions and recovery; supporting local coping capacities; and linking relief, rehabilitation and development.

Funding is currently being sought to support this important work and interested parties should contact Mihir Bhatt, Honorary Director of AIMDI ([email protected]) or Rachel Houghton, TEC Coordinator ([email protected]).

Learning about the TEC Joint Evaluation Process

A recent AAR, carried out with CMG members at their September meeting in Copenhagen, has continued efforts to learn from the TEC joint evaluation. This AAR focused in particular on the thematic and synthesis report writing process as well as the two launches. It will be available shortly on the TEC website alongside the previous two AARs that took place in September 2005 and February 2006. Additionally, we will shortly be emailing a short survey to other TEC members and supporters to ascertain their experience of the TEC. Questions will focus, for example, on TEC communications (including these Updates) as well as benefits of involvement in the TEC. In the meantime TEC members will continue to share lessons about the TEC joint evaluation at various Evaluation Society conferences and through other relevant fora.

TEC Products

There are already a large number of translations of TEC products into the local languages of the tsunami-affected countries, as well as French, on the TEC website ( http://www.tsunami-evaluation.org/The+TEC+in+Translation/). Work is continuing to provide more translations. In addition, and as indicated earlier, we are still in the process of producing a 'condensed' version of the synthesis report. The condensed version summarises the TEC Synthesis report. It also highlights the linkages between the TEC recommendations and discusses their implications for the day-to-day work of aid agencies.

TEC Website - members' access

Finally, we will shortly be introducing a 'members' section on the TEC website. This is for all agencies who are holding a TEC event and wish to access the various presentation templates and other workshop tools we've produced so far. Please email me if you are holding such an event and would like access to this private area: [email protected]

Best wishes

Rachel Houghton

Coordinator, Tsunami Evaluation Coalition

(at the ALNAP Secretariat)

Tel: +44 (0)207 922 0372