As part of the methodology designed by Groupe URD for the implementation of the Global Study, a second workshop was planned for the return of most of the Study teams in order to ensure cross fertilisation and exchange between the different teams. This workshop took place in September, two months after the first workshop and brought together: the returning Afghanistan, DRC and Colombia teams, the Project Director who was just back from a series of visits in Afghanistan, DRC and Colombia, the newly recruited team leader for the Angola Country study, and four representatives of the ALNAP Global Study Steering Group.

Participation :

The agenda comprised feed-back and discussion related to the different phases of the Global Study.

The preparation of a literature review was an essential task for the beginning of the Global Study. A comprehensive review of the anglophone literature was prepared by the senior researcher Pierson Ntata and presented at the workshop. This paper will be finalised with comments from the SG and put on the Global study website.

Francophone and hispanophone literature reviews are currently being done and will be finalised during the next months.

The initial concept was to have a team leader with more of a research background, a "secondee" made available by one of the ALNAP agencies who would represent the "practitioners’ view", and local consultants.

For various reasons, it has not been possible to maintain this sheme all the time. Three elements were injected by Groupe URD in the team elaboration :

à gender balance

à not to have only northerners in the proeminent positions and southerner as "locals"

à to be multinational both within and between the teams.

This approach enabled the creation of an interesting mix with 5 nationalities, three main languages (English, French, Spanish), and four additional languages (Portuguese, Swahili, Dari and Kirwandese) spoken by team leaders, secondees or research assistants. An international team for a Global Study !!

The methodology and methods for the field research were elaborated during the July workhop when representatives of the Steering Group, already identified team leaders, and research assistants spent two days on that issue. A simplified and user-friendly research protocol was prepared and disseminated at the end of the workshop (see on the website).

This field mission was undertaken during the period when INTRAC was in charge of the Global Study. A comprehensive document has been prepared and will be edited to the general format of the "Country Monographs" by François Grünewald, GSPD.

The mission in Colombia was carried out from June to September in two phases (exploratory mission and research phase). A team leader, an assistant researcher and two national consultants undertook a comprehensive research in three areas selected in order to cover the highest level of diversity possible in terms of the type of crisis, the cultural contexts and the presence of aid actors. This mission was concluded by a one day feed-back workshop attended by NGOs and institutions, both international and national.

The mission in DRC was carried out from the end of July to mid-September by a team comprising a team leader from the Canadian NGO ‘Alternatives’, a secondee from OFDA, and two national consultants who were recruited from very active local research networks. The team extensively covered humanitarian situations related to the war, to the Nyaracongo eruption and to the floods of the Karamango. At the end of the mission, the team participated in workshops organised by local networks where the work of the Global Study was presented.

As a result of the fear that no natural disaster would take place during the period of the study, it was decided that, in a "piggy-backing" fashion, one more person would be included in Groupe URD’s previously planned mission to Afghanistan, in order to cover participation and consultation issues in general and, more specifically, in relation to the Nahrin area affected by two earthquakes during spring 2002. The particularity of this mission is that it explored in depth the issues of sector-related specificities in relation to consultation and participation.

Here again, the results of the mission were presented during a feed-back workshop in Kabul attended by donors, UN agencies, local and international NGOs and ICRC

The team is currently being recruited and the team leader was able to participate to the present workshop. This provided an unique opportunity for him to be immerged in the work and the spirit of the Global Study and to benefit from the experience of the other teams.

Departure is expected during the second part of September. There are a many difficulties with finding a "secondee" and alternatives are being explored.

We do not know yet where, when and even wether there will be one such disaster during the current phase of the Global Sudy, although we are entering now in the "hurricane season" in Central America.

àDifficulties in finding possible team leaders and secondees at a time where there is a high demand of staff due to the Afghanistan crisis and the developing emergency in Austral Africa.

àConsultants for the rapid onset are very seldom able to remain on stand-by.

The group discussed the outline of the country monographs. The idea was to have an outline that would both allow for comparability and leave some flexibility to the writers. The following sketch was approved.

The debate between the Project Director, the team leaders and the members of the Steering Group concentrated around three main issues :

• How can we make the drafting simple and not too time consuming ?
• How can we avoid the risk of loosing information which would be useful at later stages in the preparation of the Practitioner Handbook and the Overview book ,
• How can we respect the delays imposed by the contractual arrangements ?

The following process was finally agreed upon.

Draft 1 of 30-40 pages + annexes

Circulated to field and Project Director

draft 2 translated

Circulated to Project Director and Steering Group

draft 3

Final product

 

It was discussed that the full name of the study may have to be changed in order to ensure clarity and « user-friendliness ». Indeed, the name "Global Study on Consultation with and Participation by Beneficiaries and Affected Populations in Planning, Implementing, Monitoring and Evaluating Humanitarian Action" can be reduced down to "the Global Study on Particpation by Affected Populations in Humanitarian Action" since :

à Consultation is just one aspect or phase of participation;

à Beneficiaries are part of the Affected Populations

à the various phases of the project cycle are integral parts of "humanitarian action".

A time slot has been allocated to the Global Study at the next October ALNAP Bianual in India. This will be split into two parts :

à ½ hour presentation

à 1 hour discussion ans debate.

For this presentation, a PowerPoint document will be prepared. In addition, a series of short papers on the country studies will be prepared and bundled together.

The following format has been agreed upon :

Different views have been debated after a presentation prepared by the Project Director on several key issues related to the content of the handbook.

The Practitioner handbook

à should really be user-friendly

à should help specialists in their respective fields

à should keep the holistic approach that beneficiaries and communities have of the perception of their needs and of their future.

Therefore, the Handbook should at least comprise six parts :

à Participation : why and why not

à Context analysis and participatory methods;

à Understanding the local actors : an introduction to social sciences;

à From needs to demand and from offer to supply : the roots of the negociation

à Sector-related specificities

à Communication skills

On the basis of experience of manual elaboration and dissemination in other sectors and by various agencies, several questions were put on the table :

àdoes it make sense to publish an untested version ?

àhow can we ensure feed-back to field partners ?

àif not, what could be the approach ?

àshould we already think of a translation strategy ?

One question was related to how this manual should be reflected in the revision of the SPHERE manual. Steering group members will discuss with the SPHERE team.

The following proposition has been put forward for discussion:

àA pilot/test phase in at least two contexts

à translation in at least French and Spanish

à a budget should be searched for

The following concept has been discussed and agreed upon

The text will prepared by GSPD with support of the research assistants and of the senior researcher.

One of the sensitive issues raised relates to the quotations and possible use of certain field examples. When required, checks will be made with the agencies and individuals for quotation and boxes.

Attention will have to be paid to the English editing while means for translation will have to be mobilised, if one wants the document to have an audience as wide as possible.

Important for the limelight and dissemination of the Overview book are the forewords and cover endorsers.

A certain number of tasks are to be done :

àlist of people to approach (Kofi Anan, Sergio de Mello, Richard Chambers…)

àfind quotes : beneficiaries versus well-known person

à prepare acknowledgments from Steering Group

The case studies are all very different and underlining different key issues :

àshould they all the follow the same format or should each of them have its own focus around a specific theme ?

Sri lanka : aid and a stratified society

DRC : aid agencies in an active civil society

Afghanistan : aid in the country of the shura

Colombia : aid in a decentralised conflict

Angola : aid in a resource rich but devastated post socialist country

Having learnt from previous experiences how important is the communication that takes place during a mission, the Global Study team prepared a communication kit based on two leaflets :

à a leaflet on the Global Study which was translated in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese;

à a two page A4 paper on ALNAP.

These documents have proved very useful to carry and promote the image of the Global Study and ALNAP, and they have opened doors.

The idea of creating a website emerged immediately in June in order to promote the Global Study, disseminate its findings and create a participatory dialogue between the Global Study Team, ALNAP members and other possible interested parties and stakeholders. This site opened in July.

The ongoing technological and software changes undertaken by Groupe URD have slowed down the process of keeping this site regularly updated, but nevertheless the consultation statistics are very interesting. The website is due to be updated as soon as possible in order to facilitate information, debate and fund-raising.

Articles promoting the Global Study and its results will be prepared for various media, such as the Humanitarian Exchange (from the ODI-based Humanitarian Practice Network), Field Exchange (from ENN), Disasters, La revue des Questions Humanitaires, etc. The Project Director will coordinate this work.

As the missions have been largely completed, the disbursements will increase with the return of the accounting files from each of the team leaders to Group URD’s accounting system.

Groupe URD will thus forward to ALNAP important bills to be reimbursed.

In addition, some of the costs have been high in certain countries : Colombia and Angola are not cheap places and transportation costs, recruitement of local consultants, etc., have represented important sums. The finances of Groupe URD are not such that they can buffer cash flow difficulties at ODI/ALNAP level.

There is therefore a need for ALNAP to pursue fund-raising for the completion of phase 1 and phase 2. Groupe URD will ensure that all the required accounting documents, narrative reports will be in the hands of ALNAP as soon as possible. It will also accelerate the updating of the website in order to facilitate transparency and information for specific donors.

La Fontaine des Marins, September the 15^th, 2002

François Grünewald

Global Study Project Director

Groupe URD