January 2012: Haiti Earthquake Recovery Two Years On

Photo: UN Photo/Marco Dormino

Evaluations of the immediate earthquake response have been carried out by humanitarian organisations and donor countries -- demonstrating their will to both learn from and improve the current response.

A few important messages from evaluations:

In the context of broader debates about the functioning of the humanitarian system - and the adequacy of the Haiti earthquake response in particular - evaluators are providing some concrete lessons. Sadly, many of these lessons have been highlighted in the past (see this lEG brief or ALNAP's lessons note). More attention is needed on creating incentives for change and implementing lessons to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated (again).

In June 2011 the DAC Evaluation Network published an Evaluation Insights on the Haiti Earthquake Response. This quick guide for humanitarian policy makers and practitioners distils key findings and emerging lessons from a selection of available evaluations on the response to Haiti’s earthquake in January 2010. Some of the emerging lessons include: Support and empower affected government and civil society however incremental, to play a central role in the humanitarian response. Humanitarian coordination should accommodate non-humanitarian actors, most notably military, private sector, host government and local community and civil society. Support the recruitment of national staff wherever possible. This not only ensures maximum value for money but also promotes greater effectiveness and sustainability.

Key resources on the Haiti earthquake response:

• Haiti Earthquake Response (ALNAP, February 2011) en français
• Real Time Evaluation (URD, August 2010) en français
• Achievements, Challenges and Lessons to be Learned (IASC, July 2010)
• Haiti Earthquake Response: Context Analysis and Evaluation Framework
  (Haiti Evaluation Task Force, July 2010)
• Assisting Earthquake Victims: Evaluation of Dutch Co-operating Aid Agencies Support to Haiti in 2010 (November 2011)
• Haiti Evaluation Task Force

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