3.3 Accountability and assessment
Assessments can place a burden on the disaster-affected communities and infrastructure, or can even make them more vulnerable in conflict situations if they are poorly coordinated among the many humanitarian agencies conducting assessments. The following do’s and don’ts can help avoid negative impacts.
Do:
- Take a good enough approach.
- Be prepared to introduce CARE as an organisation and describe our mandate and objectives (refer to The good enough guide , Tool 1).
- Involve women and men affected by the disaster.
- Ensure assessment team is gender balanced as much as possible.
- Provide appropriate assistance at the same time as assessing wherever possible.
- Consider joint assessments when appropriate.
- Share assessment objectives, plans and results with the community, and clearly communicate the organisation’s mandate.
- Coordinate assessments, and share plans and results, with other agencies and local authorities wherever possible.
- Ensure the assessment adequately analyses gender, violence, discrimination, protection and ‘do no harm’.
Don’t:
- Duplicate the work of other agencies and contribute to assessment overload.
- Put communities or staff at unnecessary risk.
- Continue assessing without providing assistance, if assistance is urgent and is able to be provided.
- Be a humanitarian tourist (visiting and observing with no purpose or assistance)
- Make promises that cannot be kept.
