Coordination of international humanitarian assistance in tsunami-affected countries

The evaluation focuses on the efficiency, effectiveness, coherence and appropriateness of coordination arrangements within the international humanitarian system and how this related to national government and nongovernmental agents.

The main findings are grouped under eight themes, as summarised below:

• Leadership: there was a need for greater coherence on the responsibilities of reporting and decision making within the various levels of coordination, and insufficient efforts were made to disseminate information and explain the purpose and roles of the available UN services
• Host political authorities: strong national governments with well-developed national institutions and functioning legal frameworks were beneficial, however local-government coordination mechanisms were largely ineffective
• Labour divisions: the quality of UN appointed individuals varied considerably, indicating the need for better training, with greater emphasis given to outreach skills that discourage the prevailing UN-centric approach to coordination
• Strategic planning for recovery: a general lack of foresight and strategic thinking on the part of the international community was found, particularly with respect to shelter provision, resource allocation and gender analysis
• Resource mobilisation: many agencies allocated funds towards longer term recovery programmes, but with few exceptions was this subject to coordinated interagency policy discussion
• Information management: mobile phones and satellite imagery emerged as important instruments of communication and coordination in the immediate stages of the emergency - good relations with private sector suppliers should in future be paramount
• Ensuring accountability: there was an increased level of awareness and heightened capacity within international and national bodies regarding the monitoring of tsunami transactions
• Advocacy: there was insufficient dialogue with governments and communities on the issues of civil protection, population consolidation and internal displacement.