This review examines evaluation as a tool to improve accountability and performance in the operation of the international humanitarian aid system.

It seeks to improve the consistency and quality of evaluation methodologies, and enhance the accountability function of evaluation, contribute to institutionalising lessons learned, and identify better methods for monitoring performance of humanitarian aid operations.

The review is the written output of an OECD/DAC project initiated to identify and disseminate best practice in the evaluation of humanitarian assistance programmes.

In the context of the violent and volatile environments in which refugees, displaced persons and other victims of conflicts find themselves and in which the UN and other humanitarian operate, this report considers means of improving protection for humanitarian assistance to refugees and others in conflict situations.

Dealing primarily with the role of international organisations, the report focuses on the following specific issues:

- Compliance of State and non-State actors with the provisions of international law
- Access of refugees, IDPs and vulnerable

L'ampleur des activités liées au processus de réhabilitation explique la diversité des acteurs intervenants; pour chacun des domaines spécifiques de la réhabilitation, une multitude d'acteurs sont présents.

Or, les armées qui sont intervenues au moment de la phase aiguë de la crise pour remplir une mission militaire ou militaro-humanitaire sont encore présentes lors de cette phase de réhabilitation. Malgré le caractère empirique prédominant de la réponse des armées, nous verrons qu'il se dessine depuis peu une stratégie visant à inclure l'ensemble

By Anis Ahmed

DHAKA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Millions of Bangladeshis on Tuesday fought a grim battle against the country's worst floods in a decade as the death toll moved past 500.

Bangladesh is increasingly desperate for foreign aid to reach its shores as disease, drownings, mudslides, house collapses and snake bite deepen the nation's misery.

The flooding has killed at least 513 people and left 25 million homeless or marooned with three-quarters of the country submerged, disaster management and health officials said.

The toll included about 90 people who

By Ellis Mnyandu
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 1 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed on Tuesday for foreign troops to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a precursor to a peace settlement .

Annan, in South Africa for the 12th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Durban, said he backed moves by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to try to end a month-long war between Laurent Kabila's loyalists and Rwandan-backed rebels.

"Ultimately we would like to see all foreign forces withdraw from the Congo," Annan told reporters

The European Commission has cleared a package of humanitarian aid worth ECU 1 million for victims of the flooding in Bangladesh. The aid, managed by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), will enable humanitarian organisations to provide emergency relief to the victims of the floods in the coming months.
This year the effects of the recent flooding have exceeded Bangladesh's capacity for self-reliance, in particular in the Northwest and Central districts (over 60% of the landmass). Up to 20 million people have been affected.

ECHO's programme will focus on food and

By Llazar Semini

TIRANA, Sep 1 (Reuters) - Albania on Tuesday renewed its call for international intervention in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo to halt bloodshed and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe among ethnic Albanian refugees.

"Developments in Kosovo have become more complex and more alarming every day," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Intervention by the international community, in all forms, should be fast and energetic to save the life of tens of thousands of innocent people massively endangered by the flames

KATHMANDU, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Relief workers on Tuesday recovered four more bodies from beneath a muddy landslide in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, pushing the death toll from the disaster to 50, officials said.

"We pulled out from the mud four bodies of women and children," Krishna Prasad Adhikary, a rescue official, told Reuters by phone from Syangja, 250 km (160 miles) west of Kathmandu.

Local media reports said about 70 people were missing and feared dead after heavy monsoon rains triggered the natural disaster, which struck villages in remote areas at the weekend.