Building Impact: Evaluating Impact in the Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements Sector - Proceedings of the Global Shelter Cluster Recovery Community of Practice Learning Event, May 2023

This report was compiled and edited by Yara ElMaghrabi, Janina Engler-Williams, Bill Flinn, Tanya Haldipur, Fiona Kelling, Charles Parrack and Sue Webb.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Identifying the problem

The shelter and settlements sector has long recognised the broad impacts adequate shelter can have on people’s lives, health, livelihoods, safety and well-being, indeed on affected populations’ recovery from disasters and crises. However, while within the sector this is now broadly acknowledged, there remains a need to advocate for this across humanitarian sectors and to a wider variety of external actors.

To what extent are we able to demonstrate that the provision of adequate shelter assistance has a positive impact on these essential aspects of recovery? How might better evidence of the impacts of shelter and settlement assistance lead to improved humanitarian programming?

How the learning event explored this topic

In May 2023, the Global Shelter Cluster’s Recovery Community of Practice held an online Learning Event bringing together evaluation specialists with shelter practitioners to explore the WHY, WHAT, HOW, WHO and WHEN of understanding and measuring the impacts of shelter assistance. The event invited a series of presentations by experts and practitioners to discuss what the challenges and possibilities are around improving the use and understanding of evaluating impact in the shelter and settlements sector, and how evidence could subsequently be used.

This event explored what evidence is needed and for what purpose, as well as how it is utilised and who should be involved, and if this could strengthen the implementation of shelter support to populations in need. This report draws on the presentations made during the Learning Event itself, the contributions from event participants, as well as additional contributions and interviews.

Content and conclusions - What will the reader take from this report?

A number of themes and crucial issues emerged from the learning event and this report. These are:

• The importance of coordination both within the shelter and settlements sector and across other sectors in order to share and use information more effectively.

• The need to develop partnerships between shelter practitioners, evaluators, donors and other actors in order to better understand the wider impacts of shelter programming. In turn, to use these partnerships to advocate for more resource allocation for evidence gathering.

• The importance of engaging affected communities in the evaluation process, to not only consult communities but to try and support them to lead and influence the process of evidence gathering directly.

• The need for further research, particularly in the area of evaluating impact in conflict settings. Furthermore, to explore whether it is appropriate for the sector to create standardised sector wide indicators for measuring impact in a more cohesive way across organisations.

• The need for greater support for shelter and settlements project teams. In particular, to provide MEAL teams and programmatic staff with the time and opportunity to think about evaluation early on and throughout project cycles.