Evaluation of Disaster Preparedness in EU Humanitarian Action (DG ECHO)

Project Description

Commissioned by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), IRMA has led (under Particip GmbH) an independent strategic and global evaluation of EU contributions to disaster preparedness in humanitarian action from 2015 to 2020.  The evaluation was guided by nine research questions aligned to a retrofitted Preparedness Theory of Change and it examines two modalities:

  • Disaster preparedness activities mainstreamed in EU humanitarian response projects, and
  • Dedicated or targeted preparedness actions financed under the budget earmarked in annual Worldwide Decisions (annual budget allotted by the European Commission).

As part of the desk phase, the evaluation team has conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) by coding in Max QDA more than 5,000 documents (ECHO funding decisions, EU policies and funded projects, in addition to academic and other disaster preparedness grey literature). The evaluation team also interviewed key informants and conducted in-depth case studies on conflict preparedness, climate change preparedness, national government preparedness and multi-risk approaches.

The report is available here.