All posts in Environment and Disasters

in category Environment and Disasters, Oxfam and 0 comments.

Evaluating the impact of DRR Interventions after disasters

The Oxfam Global Humanitarian Team (GHT) has a Performance and Innovation Team that sets the standards and gathers evidence to document learning in the different thematic areas of Oxfam work, including Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

Oxfam’s GHT sought IRMA’s support to develop a methodology to evaluate the impact of its DRR work in communities that are subsequently affected by a disaster. Oxfam wanted to know how it could assess the extent to which investments in DRR had helped beneficiaries to withstand the effects of a hazard event, and whether they were less affected than others who had not participated in a DRR project. In addition, because it would be used in a post-disaster context, Oxfam wanted the methodology to avoid creating a burden for teams on the ground engaged in response work.

IRMA developed an innovative methodology – a Rapid Impact Assessment – for this purpose and supported its successful pilot application in India. Learning from the pilot was incorporated, and in Spring 2022 IRMA will deliver training on Rapid Impact Assessment to Oxfam’s M&E and DRR teams to support a global roll-out.

in category Environment and Disasters, World Vision and 0 comments.

Evaluation of World Vision’s Disaster READY Program in the Pacific and Timor Leste

The Disaster READY program is aimed at building local humanitarian capacity and preparedness in the Pacific and Timor-Leste, to enable communities and governments to better respond and recover from rapid-and slow-onset disasters. The program is a result of a partnership between the Australian Government (DFAT) and six Australian NGOs, including World Vision Australia. World Vision partners involved in this program are The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Christian Blind Mission International (CBM) Australia, Habitat for Humanity Australia (HfHA), and Field Ready.  The program activities and actions within first phase of the Disaster READY program, implemented from 2017 to 2022 in five Pacific Island countries- Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Timor-Leste will be assessed.

IRMA’s role in this evaluation is to assess the program’s impact, effectiveness, sustainability, and relevance through qualitative data collection methods, secondary data review, and triangulation. The conclusions and recommendations generated by the evaluation will be used to inform the design of the second phase of Disaster READY (starting in July of 2022) as well as inform World Vision Australia’s broader work on disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation (CCA), and resilience-building in the Pacific.

in category Environment and Disasters, EU and 0 comments.

Technical assistance to address environmentally induced displacement in EC external cooperation

Climate change has become an increasingly important driver of human mobility. Those displaced due to environmental, or climate factors are not legally represented in the Refugee Convention and no internationally agreed terminology captures their status.

This project will map how the European Union and partners address environment-displacement linkages to establish a more insightful organizational position as EU moves to chair the Platform for Disaster and Displacement (PDD).

IRMA will technically assist to map global actions and policies, to advise EU on specific related technical requests and to develop/deliver online training and briefing materials for the INTPA Academy.

The Contracting Authority is the European Union (EU), represented by the European Commission (EC). The stakeholders involved in this contract include Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Platform for Disaster and Displacement (PDD).

in category Environment and Disasters, IOM and 0 comments.

IRMA conducts “Environmental Considerations in Humanitarian Response” Training of Trainers for International Organization for Migration (IOM)

As part of our ongoing technical support to International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Guatemala, IRMA designed and conducted the first round of a “Training of Trainers” on the incorporation of environmental considerations in humanitarian response to population displacement in Guatemala. Following a positive evaluation of the first round, IRMA will conduct a second round of the training in November 2021.

The training, which is provided in Spanish, aims to:

1) Strengthen participants’ knowledge about environmental impacts that result from humanitarian response to migration,

2) Develop participants’ capacities to identify ways to prevent and mitigate such impacts,

3) Equip participants with resources and techniques to replicate the trainings within their respective institutions.

Each session applies an environmental lens to assess unintended negative impacts that result from humanitarian responses in shelter, WASH, health and wellbeing, food, livelihoods, gender, and protection programming. Critical thinking exercises, use of visual and game-like applications (Miro, Kahoot) and a peer-to-peer learning approach encourage and sustain participant engagement and interest.

The course culminates in a virtual simulation of a humanitarian response to a sudden, massive migration flow. Participants test their newly acquired knowledge and skills to design and deliver an environmentally-responsible response.

The training is led by IRMA partner Marilise Turnbull, with research and technical support from Chandler Smith.