Evaluation of CIDA's Humanitarian Assistance 2005-2011

CIDA's humanitarian assistance aims to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain the dignity of those affected by conflicts and natural disasters by providing appropriate, timely, and effective assistance.

Why Conduct this Evaluation?

Between 2005 and 2011, CIDA provided more than $2.7 billion in humanitarian assistance. This evaluation provides an oversight of this spending and examines how to enhance the relevance, design, delivery, and performance of our assistance.

CIDA's contributions help save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity

What did the Evaluation Find?

• Relevant to Beneficiaries — CIDA has the appropriate tools to collect and analyze needs-based information to ensure it is choosing relevant proposals by its partners.
• Global Results — Canada has played an important role in the international humanitarian community, and continues to contribute significantly to global coordination and capacity while promoting results-based management and gender equality.
• Country-Level Results — CIDA's contributions are largely effective in meeting CIDA's objectives, with results achieved for all expected outcomes. Concrete results for beneficiaries included improving access to food and non-food items, re-establishing livelihoods, reducing vulnerability, and providing protection.
• Expertise and Design — CIDA's humanitarian assistance expertise is robust and relevant, and is concentrated in Headquarters in the International Humanitarian Assistance Directorate. CIDA field staff would benefit from better guidance on their mandates and coordination responsibilities vis-à-vis humanitarian issues.
• Monitoring and Evaluation — More systematic monitoring and evaluation would help CIDA to better capture, integrate and share lessons from its humanitarian assistance program.
• Efficiency — In the past six years, CIDA decreased the percentage of humanitarian funds spent on management from an already efficient 1 percent.
• Matching Funds — There are no public criteria for determining when to launch a matching fund. The use of matching fund monies could be more transparent.
• Communication — CIDA regularly informs the media about its humanitarian assistance responses. CIDA is missing opportunities to communicate the achievements of its humanitarian programming to the public in both Canada and partner countries.

What Does the Evaluation Recommend?

• Develop a whole-of-agency humanitarian assistance strategy.
• Develop a systematic, integrated approach to supporting (a) prevention and risk reduction, and (b) recovery and transition to development.
• Intensify efforts to improve the timeliness of humanitarian response decision-making.
• Review the use of matching funds.
• Improve accountability and reporting through the use of monitoring and evaluation to identify lessons learned and to ensure adequate dissemination and implementation.
• Improve the information available to the Canadian public about CIDA's humanitarian assistance activities.