th ALNAP 25 Annual Meeting

Guide to the

Innovations Fair

Cash and Vouchers - The Cash Learning Partnership (CALP) There is a growing recognition in the humanitarian sector that cash transfers can be an appropriate and effective tool to support populations affected by disasters. Sound assessment and analysis of the impact of cash and vouchers on the disaster affected population and local economy and market systems are crucial in deciding if cash and vouchers are an appropriate response modality. Important innovations in the way that cash reaches those in need are changing the way that aid is delivered and a growing number of NGOs and UN bodies are implementing and building capacity in cash based responses. Programme design and implementation are moving fast and it is important to capture and share these experiences.

With this in mind, following the Asian Tsunami in 2005, the Cash and Learning Partnership (CaLP) started working together (with ODI, Concern Worldwide and Mercy Corps) to ensure that the wealth of learning from the tsunami response was captured. This informed the development of Cash Transfer Programme (CTP) trainings which have been rolled over in the last three years.

CaLP aims to improve the quality of cash transfer programming across the humanitarian sector and key stakeholders through capacity building, research as well as development and communication of good practice. In 2009, CaLP has managed to build a community of practice and host an informal networking event attended by over 30 people. CaLP has also commissioned two major pieces of research; one into the cost effectiveness and appropriateness of different cash delivery mechanisms and another looking at the impacts of CTP on local markets and people. The findings of this programmatic research will be circulated across different technical disciplines involved in humanitarian action and will be presented at an upcoming CaLP Learning Conference to be held on 19th January 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Civil Society-led : The ‘Paung Ku Nargis Response’ - Justin Corbett On 2nd May 2008, hit the coastal delta of killing over 150,000 people and severely affecting 2 million more. The brief period of creative chaos which followed in the wake of the storm, and the slow start of the international response, allowed a number of innovative products and processes to be developed that focused on supporting the massive autonomous relief intervention of local civil society. These attempted to combine rapid and flexible systems for grant disbursal with initiatives for simultaneously developing, or at least protecting, existing capacities of CSOs. The experience demonstrates that appropriate systems for supporting a civil society response to rapid-onset emergency can enable very fast and sensitive relief at scale, with greater penetration and at much lower costs than conventional direct implementation by international agencies.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

Community Therapeutic Care - Valid International CTC is a paradigm-shifting approach to the treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Until recently, people suffering from SAM were all treated exclusively as inpatients in either hospitals or specialised therapeutic feeding centres. This inpatient model was ineffective (suffering from high mortality rates of 20-30%), was resource intensive and impracticable in the majority of resource-poor settings where SAM is most common, and was unpopular with people. Most troubling, it appeared to show little population level impact – posting extremely low coverage rates of <10%. By contrast, CTC programmes treat the vast majority of acutely malnourished people in their homes, restricting inpatient care to only those suffering from acute malnutrition with medical complications. They use decentralised networks of outpatient treatment sites to provide a take-home ration of specialist ready-to-use therapeutic food and routine medicines. By providing easy access and limiting the opportunity costs associated with programme enrolment, the CTC model increases programme coverage and compliance. Dramatic results from CTC programmes were published by VI and NGO partner Concern Worldwide in a series of articles in The Lancet and the UN Food and Nutrition Bulletin, showing that high impact cost-effective interventions against SAM were possible, and bringing about a radical and rapid rethinking of priorities in humanitarian assistance amongst the major bilateral and multilateral players. Several years on, the de-medicalised, decentralised approach ushered in by CTC is now standard. Thirty-five countries are practicing CTC, cure rates have increased dramatically, mortality rates have been cut several fold to under 5%, and coverage has increased to over 70%. Perhaps most important, it is now axiomatic that humanitarian interventions to address acute malnutrition are judged on the basis of public health impact (coverage).

Competency-based assessed courses - RedR RedR’s new competency-based assessed courses in Security Management and People and Project Management are innovations in process driven by the need to improve the impact of training for humanitarian personnel. Key issues continually facing the humanitarian sector are accountability and quality assurance, including how to build a professional and recognised international humanitarian workforce. Both in the humanitarian sector and outside of it, there has been growing recognition of the limited value of conventional didactic training courses designed to achieve a series of learning objectives that will be met (or not met) within a given timeframe – usually by the end of the course. RedR’s evaluations of these courses indicate that a degree of knowledge and/or skills practice had been imparted due to the practical nature of the courses but that it was difficult to verify from an employer’s point of view whether those skill sets had been achieved. RedR’s competency-based and assessed training, however, is an approach to training that places emphasis on what a person can do in the workplace as a result of completing a program of training. It is also more rigorous and more flexible; rigorous because the emphasis is on performance not on the recall of knowledge; flexible because competencies are independent of the learning process and can, therefore, be achieved through several modes and long after the course is over. These new courses have also addressed the need to provide continuous learning – beyond the training room – with pre- course preparation, highly participatory face-to-face training courses and a reflective journal completed over several months after the course, based on their application of the learning in a work environment. These RedR courses have been credit rated by Oxford Brookes University, responding to a need for professionalisation in the sector by providing academic recognition to training and prior learning of competent humanitarian professionals.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

Complaints and Response Systems - HAP International Complaints and response mechanisms, a paradigm-based innovation, are a critical element of what makes an organisation accountable and enables disaster-affected communities to exercise a level of real power and input into the decisions affecting their daily lives. A complaints and response mechanism (CRM) encompasses all the procedures an agency adopts to enable beneficiaries, staff, partner agencies and other specified stakeholders to raise concerns related to the agency’s work, actions and commitments. An effective CRM will appropriately review and respond to complaints in a timely manner as well as allow beneficiaries to enforce agencies’ claims on quality and accountability, while also presenting agencies with significant opportunities to improve services and strengthen their stakeholder relationships. Developing a safe, transparent, confidential and accessible CRM, with beneficiaries’ involvement in the design and implementation, is one of the most innovative and challenging aspect of humanitarian accountability. Addressing these challenges is a cornerstone of HAP membership. For more information on HAP, its members and the HAP Standard in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management, visit www.hapinternational.org.

Crisis Mapping - Ushahidi Ushahidi is a novel platform that facilitates the use of ‘wisdom of crowds’ approaches in gathering and managing crisis information. The platform connects a number of technologies ranging from the Web, e-mail, SMS and Twitter to dynamically collect, map and disseminate geographically tagged crisis information in near real-time. The free and open source platform enables users to subscribe to specific alerts in specific geographies and to visualize the crisis data dynamically over time and space. The platform is also available as a mobile application on a host of phones. The information flow is therefore horizontal and decentralised. Ushahidi is an African initiative that emerged from the post-election violence in . The platform has since been deployed in Colombia, the DRC, Gaza by Al Jazeera, and by local civil society groups in Lebanon, and Afghanistan, amongst others. Several groups have recently suggested their intention to use the platform in the Ukraine, and Burma.

Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance - ELRHA The Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) Project: ELRHA is the first collaborative network dedicated to supporting partnerships between UK Academia and the humanitarian community. The presentation will provide information on the origins of the project within both the HE and humanitarian communities and will outline the transformation that the project is aiming to achieve in how humanitarian challenges could be more effectively identified, explored and solved through stronger academic-to-practitioner partnership.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

Field-based innovations - GB Oxfam GB's WASH Innovation presentation is on "Encouraging innovation from field practitioners" and explains the process of an individual innovation prize chosen by field staff themselves which leads to the creation of a larger fund to encourage and support country team innovation. Through this process Oxfam has launched a number of projects new to Oxfam and the WASH sector.

Gross Motor Development and its use as an indicator of risk of development for children from 6 to 36 months old living in contexts of poverty and malnutrition - Action Contre la Faim (ACF) /Action Against Hunger (AAH) ACF works to improve the survival and physical well-being of infants and children in emergencies or in conditions of extreme poverty. Recently, ACF’s activities have extended to provide mental health support and to protect and foster child development. This extension is in response to the growing evidence that nutritional deficiencies, high incidence of infections associated with poverty (e.g. malaria), unsatisfied basic social and emotional needs and stress derived from natural or man-made disasters and emergencies have serious detrimental developmental effects. The research aimed at defining indicators for use in contexts in which ACF intervenes. As part of this work, ACF has been using data extrapolated from nutritional surveys in different countries to assess the pertinence and the validity of ‘gross motor milestones’ as a development indicator for children in contexts of poverty and malnutrition. This is based on the understanding that the acquisition of bipedal locomotion - an important aspect of gross motor development - ultimately affects the cognition of young children. This is a process innovation, which brings a new analytical tool to the analysis and understanding of malnutrition. This stand will present how these indicators were developed and used in a variety of settings. Information about how these indicators might be used as a risk factor in nutrition centres will also be outlined.

Humanitarian Management Software – Groupe URD Having been asked by a number of NGOs to develop information management software, Groupe URD has now gathered all the necessary ingredients to do so: the software design, an appropriate development method and the means of guaranteeing its long term maintenance. Based on an assessment of NGO needs, a survey of the computerisation of donor reporting and lessons learned developing the Dynamic COMPAS software, our new project aims to improve information collection, planning and reporting processes. It will help NGOs focus more on the quality of their projects, less on administrative obligations and allow them to report to donors more effectively. Most NGOs do not have software of this kind, the principal reason being that it is too costly. In order to develop and maintain highly flexible software for a minimal cost over the long term, we have decided to use the free software economic model. The software development process will be highly participatory. A working group of nine NGOs is already meeting regularly to discuss what they want from the software. They will continue to be involved through the use of an agile software development methodology. Technical partners from IT companies, free software communities and universities are also eager to take part in the project. The free software we plan to develop will help to improve quality and coordination by making reporting, planning and information exchange easier.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

The Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) - DARA The Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) is an annual research process that assesses and ranks government donors on how well they support humanitarian action. The HRI represents innovation as both a product and a process. As a product, the HRI publication is unique as it provides an evidence base on donor performance around 60 indicators of donor practice, as well as case studies in different crisis contexts. This provides an objective evidence base for stakeholders to identify donors’ strengths and highlight areas for improvement in the sector. As a process, the scale of the HRI’s research process makes it one of the largest annual exercises of its kind. It includes field research in 13 different crises, interviews hundreds of humanitarian actors, and gathers over 2,000 survey responses of donor practice. The process has opened up a space for humanitarian organisations to reflect on the quality and nature of their relationship with funders and engage in a more informed debate – and perhaps a paradigm shift - on what good donor practice is and how to apply it in today’s complex environment.

Last Mile Mobile Solutions - Vision The Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS) initiative introduces innovative mobile computing technologies and better business practices within the “last mile” of humanitarian programming – the final transaction area between aid agencies and end-beneficiaries. The innovation is a collaborative effort between World Vision and the Information Technology sector that addresses a notable gap in the remote, field-based data management needs of humanitarian . LMMS has immediate application within the food-programming domain, with expansion outside food programming to follow. Using the systems, aid workers can now employ robust, wireless mobile devices to register food-aid recipients and assign them to various food programming interventions. Bar-coded identity cards link beneficiaries to a wireless data management system, which enables faster and more efficient field operations. Preliminary results indicate a 60% reduction in beneficiary processing and verification times at food distributions. LMMS eliminates the reliance on paper-based systems, automates calculations and delivers faster web-based reports to donors and stakeholders. The project is an example of how the humanitarian and private sector have combined their respective strengthens to achieve substantial impact in improving efficiency and accountability in humanitarian action.

LEGS – Livestock Emergencies Guidelines and Standards Humanitarian interventions have historically focused on saving lives rather than livelihoods, and key livestock assets can be overlooked in this urgent response. The Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) project aims to increase the quality of emergency response by promoting minimum standards for livestock-based interventions. The standards follow the format of the Sphere handbook, including minimum standards, key indicators and guidance notes, and cover a range of livestock-based interventions - destocking, feed, water, veterinary services and restocking – as well as support and guidance on livelihoods-based needs assessment and identification of appropriate, timely and feasible emergency responses. LEGS was developed using a broad consultation process involving practitioners and policy makers from around the world.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

LEGS contributes to innovative processes in emergency response, while also playing a role in the re- positioning of humanitarian action in terms of bridging the gap between disaster response and long- term development, by highlighting the importance of saving not just lives but also livelihoods through support to key livelihood assets during and after an emergency.

LifeStraw® - Vestergaard Frandsen Half of the world's poor suffer from waterborne disease, and nearly 6,000 people - mainly children - die from diseases contracted from unsafe drinking water every day. LifeStraw® water purifiers have been developed as a practical way of preventing disease and saving lives, as well as achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water by the year 2015. LifeStraw® and LifeStraw® Family are complimentary point-of- use water filters - truly unique offerings from Vestergaard Frandsen that will help people obtain safe drinking water at home and outside.

The Observatory of Humanitarian Practices in Chad - Groupe URD Groupe URD has launched an innovative collective learning programme in Chad. The first phase of the Observatory of Humanitarian Practices in Chad is being funded by DG ECHO, with the objective of facilitating the learning process, thereby helping to improve the quality of humanitarian practices. The Observatory builds on past experience; ALNAP elaborated in 1999-2000 the concept of the Learning Office and tested it in Malawi and Groupe URD kept the ball rolling in refining the experience in Afghanistan (2001-2008). The Observatory of Humanitarian Practices in Chad is the continuation of efforts to innovate in learning mechanisms. This is currently carried out in connection with existing networks such as the NGO Coordination Committee (CCO), clusters and sectorial meetings, and national institutions, as well as with individual organizations and institutions. The aim is specifically to improve the quality of aid provided, the transition between relief and development and the environmental impact of the humanitarian response in Eastern Chad.

Participatory Impact Assessments - The Feinstein International Center The Feinstein International Center, in partnership with a range of NGOs across Africa, has been developing an approach to programme evaluation which uses community based knowledge to uncover locally relevant programme impacts. Participatory Impact Assessment (PIA) allows communities to be directly involved in generating data on the impact of aid and in identifying the full range of local impacts. It counters accusations of data mining and of only looking at expected impacts. It helps counter cherry-picking in evaluations and evaluator bias. The techniques look simple, but they can generate good quantitative as well as qualitative data. But, they have to be applied with the same rigour and discipline as any other research methodology.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

Pastoralist Survey Method - Action Contre la Faim (ACF) /Action Against Hunger (AAH) The importance of having accurate and valid information from nutrition anthropometric surveys in pastoralist populations has been a major issue to all partners involved in Humanitarian Action. Pastoralist populations are today affected by climate change and displaced by war and conflict. These shocks often result in increased prevalence of acute malnutrition. One of the challenges of carrying out nutrition surveys amongst nomadic pastoralists is that populations are scattered, mobile, migrating and of unknown and changing community size. The other challenge is that pastoralists tend to have a particular body shapes with longer legs and shorter trunk compared to settled populations; this makes the usual case definition for malnutrition (weight for height) biased. The pastoralist survey method is innovative because it uses both a new sampling method and an appropriate case definition for malnutrition in pastoralist populations. The method includes a first qualitative phase when information is gathered locally to draw up the sampling frame for the survey. This information is collected using established qualitative techniques, such as focus group discussions, observation and interviews that make use of traditional knowledge and up-to-date communication systems that exist in pastoralist populations. Once this information is in place, a sample is selected for the survey using a modified two-stage sampling plan that is robust and efficient for the sample size. Local information is again used to locate the selected communities. The case-definition for acute malnutrition is based on the Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) and bi-lateral pitting oedema. The new survey method has been field tested in Mali and is ready for the next test. Whilst designed for assessment of acute malnutrition, the sampling method could be used for a range of other assessments, such as vaccination coverage, animal health assessments, and water and sanitation surveys for example.

The use of PDAs in Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping - WFP The Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping branch in WFP performs food security assessments to understand who the needy people are, how many they are, where they are, what are the risks they face and what is their ability to cope with these risks. Massive data collection activities are performed during these assessments where thousands of households are interviewed throughout a country, and very large questionnaires are compiled regarding health, nutrition, agriculture and socio-economic issues. Each assessment required tens of thousands of sheets of paper for the questionnaire, scores of toner cartridges, a team of data entry clerks to enter the data into a custom made database and numerous days of an analyst’s work to "clean" the data of data entry errors and inconsistent data. The potential usage of the data was often limited because of errors or missing elements. The innovation was born with the programming of a questionnaire into a PDA for data collection. A knowledgebase of reusable questionnaires was later developed, with the ability to quickly create a very large questionnaire in one day. A GPS component was created to gather coordinates automatically, and a mobile phone connection to immediately upload the data into an automatically created database. A light version was adopted using mobile phones sending SMS messages for regular collection of a small core set of indicators for early warning. This innovation led to a drastic drop in the time required to collect and deliver the data, which was cleaner and more reliable, and to the saving of resources. It is also opening the door to streamlining of methodologies and metadata tagging and data cataloguing.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

SMS Communication in Tajikistan to promote Community-Level Resilience to Disasters – Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP) Human vulnerability in remote, mountain villages of Tajikistan has grown increasingly acute since the fall of the Soviet Union, complicated by a rugged national topography and weak state infrastructure that impede ease of transport and communication. In response to disaster response communication needs related to recurrent risks in Tajikistan such as avalanche, flooding, mudflow, and rock fall, HFP and InSTEDD propose the introduction of small group SMS communication at village and district levels to enhance disaster information management by the very persons facing these risks on a regular basis. Through the employment of InSTEDD’s GeoChat programme – software that allows select individuals to communicate with each other simultaneously through “radio broadcast”-like messages that can be instantaneously mapped anywhere in the world on a web-accessed computer – the project hopes [1] to promote horizontal communication, early warning and shared response mechanisms within and across remote communities and [2] to enhance vertical flows of information both to and from central disaster preparedness and response hubs [at both district and national levels] for improved information management in the face of potential compound crises, and finally [3] to learn from communities themselves about priority uses of this technology for villages facing acute risk. This pilot project would run for a 90-day period in the central mountainous region of Zarafshan Valley. It would be implemented in partnership with UNDP Tajikistan. An initial launch of the project is tentatively scheduled for January 2010.

Real Time Evaluation - Oxfam GB and others One of the constraints facing international aid agencies is how to monitor and evaluate within the context of humanitarian emergencies, especially those that are of rapid onset. Given the changing nature of the environment in which agencies work, summative or impact evaluations are often carried out too late for important changes to be made to the programme. Baseline data are often missing or unreliable. The real time evaluation (RTE) has proved to be a critical tool for carrying out a process evaluation during the early days after a disaster has occurred. Although there are several risks associated with the methodology, these are outweighed by the advantages, both immediate and longer-term.

Transitional Shelter Approach - Shelter Centre Since the ‘transitional shelter approach’ was introduced by Shelter Centre in 2005, following the South Asia Tsunami, it has been used by agencies and governments worldwide to accommodate millions of people affected by both conflicts and disasters, from Kenya to . Shelter and reconstruction happen in parallel: people need somewhere to live while their houses are rebuilt. The transitional shelter approach recognises that reconstruction lasts two to five years, but that a tent only lasts around one year. The ‘transitional shelter approach’ is not another phase of response: instead, it involves building and upgrading a shelter incrementally, from plastic sheeting to sustainable local materials, which are all then reused as part of reconstruction. Assistance to displaced and non-displaced populations is often delayed as housing, land and property rights cannot be resolved quickly, however transitional shelter can be relocated, and can therefore be supportive immediately and continuously until reconstruction is complete.

Guide to the Innovations Fair

Valid Nutrition – an Innovative Humanitarian Business Model Valid Nutrition (VN) is a new form of humanitarian business that is run as a fully fledged commercial food company. As a registered charity, VN combines best practice from industry with a legal structure that puts humanitarian ethics and principles at the forefront of its business activities. All profits generated from trading are reinvested in the business without any return to shareholders. Unlike most charities, which are dependent on donated funds, Valid's unique structure aims to create a sustainable and growing business, aligned with its charitable mission. This paradigm shifting combination is at the forefront of stimulating the ethical engagement of the food industry with the needs of poor and malnourished people globally. Highly nutritious Ready to Use Food (RUF) products are sold at affordable prices under the VN brand and are manufactured by VN in Malawi or by local food companies elsewhere in developing countries. Extensive R&D and relationships with the UN, NGOs, governments and food businesses, provides VN's third-party manufacturers with access to low cost, highly efficacious products and improves their competitiveness and access to markets. VN's products use locally grown ingredients, creating demand for agricultural produce. VN increasingly purchases ingredients from small-scale farmers using smart procurement mechanisms that target vulnerable households and communities. Procurement strategies work with existing public sector agricultural extension support, forming a value chain that integrates public and private sector activities, increasing small farmer income, improving their financial stability and providing VN with better quality, lower cost ingredients. This effectively integrates nutrition and food security creating powerful positive synergies between the two sectors

WFP-DFID Institutional Strategy - Supporting the redefinition of WFP’s position from a food aid to a food assistance agency The joint WFP-DFID review of the “Institutional Strategy (IS): Working in Partnership with the World Food Programme” (2009) assessed DFID’s £15m / US$29.4m of extra-budgetary funding to WFP between 2006 and 2009. This review found that the UK’s Institutional Strategy with WFP significantly contributed to enhance WFP’s capabilities and performance through the roll out and standardization of corporate systems, the adaptation to the local context or through innovation. According to the definition of innovation key concepts provided in the “ALNAP Innovation Study” the Institutional Strategy supported the process of redefining the position of WFP in a range of countries and the organisation advanced in its transition from a food aid to a food assistance agency, in accordance with WFP’s Strategic Framework (2008-11).