SLIDE 1
ALNAP Members Poll March 2010
SLIDE 2 Introduction
The ALNAP Secretariat relies upon the opinions of Full and Observer members to ensure that our work continues to be relevant, useful, and accessible During February and March 2010 the ALNAP Communications Officer conducted 50 phone surveys Respondents included representatives of 38 Full Member organisations and 12 Observer members
Full Member Constituency NGO Donor Red Cross/ Red Crescent UN Agencies Indep./ Academic Interviewees 15 9 4 4 6
SLIDE 3
Agenda Overall value of ALNAP to its members ALNAP Meetings
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Products
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Communications
In past 18 months Year ahead
Ideas for the future
SLIDE 4 Overall, how satisfied are you with ALNAP‟s work in the past 12-18 months?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total
Don't Know 5- Very satisfied 4 3 2 1- Not at all satisfied
“Fantastic resource- Highly regarded across the humanitarian
sector” – NGO “A very valuable platform that has established itself and allows a dialogue to happen” – Red Cross “Good at systematically collecting its members’ viewpoints on the utility of its processes and products e.g. the members survey” – NGO
SLIDE 5
Agenda Overall value of ALNAP to its members ALNAP Meetings
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Products
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Communications
In past 18 months Year ahead
Ideas for the future
SLIDE 6 “An important means of updating knowledge as a whole network of practitioners are sharing across boundaries” – Indep./Acad. “I was disappointed to see so few representatives of Southern actors- Also need to bring in representatives of emerging donors and private sector”– UN Agency
What impact did the 25th ALNAP meeting have on you and your organisation?
Networking opportunity Direct impact on current work Take ideas back to
Innovation Fair particularly useful Waiting to see the follow up No impact seen Concerned by lack of non-traditional actors Other
SLIDE 7 Would you support a return to biannual meetings?
The current opinion within the membership remains against a return to biannual meetings Donors and Observer members are most opposed to a change
10 20 30 40 50 NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total
No Yes
SLIDE 8
Cost & Timing-
“Hard for me to internally justify going to two meetings” -Donor
Two large meetings can be overwhelming-
“Each time we are resetting to start. Second meeting each year should act as stock-taking on the previous.”- Red Cross
Biannual meetings to fulfil a key role for ALNAP-
“Whole community comes together, which is relatively rare for us. Money well spent” – NGO
Geographic spread-
“Consider repeating the meeting in two different regions to ensure everyone can get involved.” – Obs. Member
Would you support a return to biannual meetings?
SLIDE 9 Will the location of the next meeting in Kuala Lumpur affect your decision to attend that event?
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total
No Yes
The location of the next meeting will significantly affect members‟ decision to attend, particularly amongst European and North American Observer members
SLIDE 10
Over half of FM respondents endorsed the principle of meetings in southern locations - “Always been keen for
ALNAP to get into the South. Recognise that it makes life difficult for some, but the benefits outweigh those concerns” – Red Cross
Plan to combine with other activities in the region- “We
can take advantage of opportunities in the region” – Indep./ Acad.
Agenda - “Dependent upon the focus of the meeting- Needs to
be relevant to our organisation” - NGO
Easier for Southern members or send local staff - “We‟ll
ask one of our representatives in SE Asia to attend” - Donor
Will the location of the next meeting in Kuala Lumpur affect your decision to attend?
SLIDE 11 Do you feel it would be useful for ALNAP to host regular, smaller workshops outside of Annual Meetings?
This question provoked a range of useful ideas: Smaller meetings to achieve geographic spread A means to widen engagement with ALNAP Online meetings and webinars Potential to generate outputs and products
“Annual meeting can be unwieldy- we could actually learn something tangible from these workshops” - Donor
10 20 30 40 50
NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total No Yes
SLIDE 12
Agenda Overall value of ALNAP to its members ALNAP Meetings
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Products
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Communications
In past 18 months Year ahead
Ideas for the future
SLIDE 13 Evaluation guides and lessons papers are the most commonly used products
“Use the OECD-DAC evaluation guidelines all the time. Also use the RTE guide”- NGO “Use evaluation tools in shaping our own resources”
“Use lessons paper for briefings for operational staff and speeches for senior managers” - Donor
Please give examples of which ALNAP products and tools your organisation has used over the past 12-18 months?
Evaluation guides Lessons papers SOHS Website Job postings Haiti portal Protection Guide TEC Other resources
SLIDE 14
Other resources mentioned include:
Beneficiary feedback mechanism Accountability framework Innovations case studies TEC – as course material Please give examples of how your organisation has used ALNAP products and tools over the past 12-18 months?
SLIDE 15 How valuable have you found the 8th Review of Humanitarian Action as a resource?
Take up- “Disseminating learning to bring about change needs
streamlined action-orientated resources” – UN
Impact- “For our work on impact assessments it was particularly
relevant and timely. Utility strengthened by the quality of the product.” - UN
Too long Not used by others Useful/ valuable Direct impact Other
Grouping of comments on the value of the 8th RHA
SLIDE 16 How would you rate the quality of the State
- f the Humanitarian System report?
“Bold undertaking, worth building upon and improving”- NGO “Considering the limitations, scope of the piece was impressive” – Red Cross
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total
Not read 5- Excellent 4 3 2 1- Poor
SLIDE 17
Methodology
“Actually looking at a section of the system rather than the whole” - Red Cross “I would have liked to have seen slightly more detail in some sections” – Donor
Complementarity
“Wanted to see the how this fits in with... other initiatives” - Donor
Layout “Helpful that it is short and readable- gets those not involved with
humanitarianism to take an interest” - Donor
How would you rate the quality of the State of the Humanitarian System report?
SLIDE 18 When would you like to see the next State of the Humanitarian System report published?
“Two years gives sense of reflective piece in a fast moving sector” - NGO “Should be co-ordinated with other complementary reports” – Obs.
5 10 15 20 25 30 Never 2011 2012 2013 Beyond 2013 Don't know
SLIDE 19 How useful do you find the ALNAP lessons paper to your work and your organisation‟s work?
“Regularly providing them to operational staff, most hands on product that ALNAP produces” - Donor “Heard about widespread use in Haiti. Feedback I hear is always positive” – Obs. “Not for my work specifically but know the value to the whole community is huge” - Obs.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total Don't Know 5- Very useful 4 3 2 1- Not useful
SLIDE 20 Should ALNAP establish the capacity to provide tailored papers on a more responsive basis?
“Enormous need and opportunity to capture, disseminate and keep learning at practitioner level” - NGO “As ALNAP’s key resource it deserves greater focus and resources”
“Contextualising within the agency is just as important as the general context, which ALNAP can’t be expected to do” - NGO
10 20 30 40 50
NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total
Don't Know No Yes
SLIDE 21 Should ALNAP produce a comprehensive good practice guide on how to conduct evaluations of humanitarian action?
Amongst respondents that stated an
- pinion 70% support this idea
Support was evenly distributed across the ALNAP constituencies
10 20 30 40 50 NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total Don't know No Yes
SLIDE 22
“Now is the time- Emerging nations that are becoming more involved in humanitarian action could benefit from greater guidance” – Indep/ Acad. “A streamlined, short summary document of methodologies and lessons learned would be useful rather than a book”- NGO “We already use the OECD-DAC Guide. Perhaps worth re-looking at that rather than re-inventing another product” – Donor “There can never be a definitive guide to evaluations - The context for each evaluation changes so it can’t be standardised” - Red Cross
Should ALNAP produce a comprehensive good practice guide on how to conduct evaluations?
SLIDE 23
Agenda Overall value of ALNAP to its members ALNAP Meetings
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Products
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Communications
In past 18 months Year ahead
Ideas for the future
SLIDE 24 To what extent have the changes introduced to the ALNAP website improved your experience of using the site?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
NGO Donor R/C UN Indep Obs Total
Don't know 5- sig. improvement 4 3 2 1- no improvement
“Most user friendly of the sector network websites” - NGO “Help the busy visitor to navigate to the key documents/ top ten issues- if you have more time then follow links further in etc” – NGO “Issues of accessibility from the field- low bandwidth version?” - Obs
SLIDE 25 Do you have any ideas/ comments on how the website can be used to maintain interaction between ALNAP members? “Learning events should be accessible through website”
“Particularly useful in mobilising sub-groups within the membership rather than joining up the membership as a whole” – Indep./ Acad. “Depends what it looks like, but there is so much going
- n the web, it’s hard to find the time” – NGO
“Can’t be sure who else might be reading which is a barrier to honest debate” - Donor
SLIDE 26
Agenda Overall value of ALNAP to its members ALNAP Meetings
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Products
In past 18 months Year ahead
ALNAP Communications
In past 18 months Year ahead
Ideas for the future
SLIDE 27
Do you have any suggestions for topics, themes or issues which ALNAP should be addressing?
This question provoked a huge array of responses, with few specific topics repeated across respondents. This „Tag Cloud‟ illustrates some of the key words which were most commonly used.
SLIDE 28 What features of ALNAP‟s work could be changed to improve their value to you as an organisation?
Products:
“More practical/ operational outputs need to come from each project” – Red Cross “More streamlined, actionable, accessible, translatable” - NGO
Southern/ other actor engagement Products Agenda/ focus Deepen engagement within
Follow up on past themes Other
SLIDE 29 Southern/ Other actor engagement
“Looking at ways to get resources and learning into hands of new
- players. Making sure that beneficiaries/ national actors and
governments see the lessons and products we put out” – Obs
Deepen engagement within Member organisations Agenda/ Focus
“Focus on things you are currently doing now, and do it well. Drive for new ideas should not overwhelm the core business” – Red Cross
Follow up on previous themes
What features of ALNAP‟s work could be changed to improve their efforts to achieve that mission?
