Real-time evaluations of humanitarian action

Real-time evaluations (RTE) is one of the most demanding types of evaluation practice. It requires wide range of skills from evaluators but also a tightly focused professional approach in order to meet the demands of an RTE. This pilot guide is intended to help both evaluation managers and team leaders in commissioning, overseeing and conducting real time evaluations (RTEs) of humanitarian operational responses. Drawing on practices, it is intended as a flexible resource that can be adopted to a variety of contexts.  

The guide concentrates on RTEs undertaken in first phase of an emergency response, where RTE fieldwork takes places within a few months of the start of the response. This is because these particular RTEs can post particular problems to both evaluation managers and evaluation teams.

The guide offers:

• guidance for evaluation managers running RTEs  and guidance for evaluation teams undertaking RTEs
  
• 25 tools and techniques designed to help both evaluation managers and teams working through their respective steps. These include general resources such as standard terms of reference and sample interview guides as well as data recording tools such as interview logs, and checklists.