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
www.tsunami-evaluation.org