Review of Humanitarian Action and Emergency Response Meta-evaluation 2005 – 2008

In the period 2005 to 2008, Concern conducted or commissioned 22 evaluations of its emergency programmes and opened them up to the critical eye of other stakeholders – donors, governments, the UN, beneficiaries, and partners. This is in keeping with the organisational commitment to high standards in projects, programmes, policies and practices, and an acknowledgment of the primacy and usefulness of the evaluation approach in reaching and maintaining high standards.

It would be impossible to look at Concern's emergency responses over the last four years 2005 – 2008, without considering a number of broad issues and areas that have a great bearing on how we and the wider humanitarian community currently work and operate. This report is set against the backdrop of this wider emergency response environment and is divided into two parts:

• a review of humanitarian action over the last four years which considers the response environment, climate change, the security environment, humanitarian reform, humanitarian financing and emergency response and the military
• a meta evaluation of Concern emergency responses over the last four years

This report is the continuation of a process of organisational learning from Concern's emergency responses.