Disaster Recovery and the Road Ahead - IGNOU

Lack of Clarity on Process and Impact Indicators
Monitoring uses indicators to measure the progress of the project and the adherence to original
goals. The validity of indicators needs to be continually questioned, as most emergencies are dynamic
and continuously changing. Besides, indicators can be of various types: ‘process’ indicators and
‘impact’ indicators. Process indicators reflect the progress along methodology benchmarks, and are
a reflection of how things are progressing and how well they are being managed as per the time
schedule. Impact indicators, on the other hand, are reflective of what type of change the project
intervention is finally able to bring about in the situation that it is meant to address. Often there is
a lack of clarity on where a specific indicator fits into; and which of the indicators would amount
to overlapping.
Long and Complex Monitoring Process
The most common problem faced by monitoring and evaluation teams arises due to stretching the
process too far and making it too complex. Developing monitoring and evaluation indicators can
be an endless process. A number of indicators or benchmarks can be thought of for each component
of process and impact of the project. This is something that project team has to carefully watch
out for. It needs to have a small number of clearly stated indicators. The best way of having a small
number of indicators is to look for those indicators that are basic to the issue and reflect the interests
of target groups.
Generalized Approach to Evaluation
The quality of the humanitarian action depends largely on the adequacy, specificity and context of
the strategy used. Therefore, a universal approach would have only a limited operational value. It
is better to be contextual and specific to the disaster situation to formulate better evaluation strategies.
Inadequate Management of Data and Information
This could arise due to:
1. Low Priority to Information Systems
2. Involvement of Evaluators limited to Information Collection
3. Poor Feedback to the Data Collector
4. Quantitative Bias
5. Inadequate or Underqualified Human Resources
Inappropriate Conflict Management
One of the most common constraints in recovery process is the existence of conflict, which can be
between the organizations/agencies/representatives involved in disaster management or between the
community and these organizations. Even within the community, different groups such as community
based organizations, caste groups, community leaders, regional groups may clash amongst each
other. Overcoming conflict is an art. The first step towards which is to recognize conflict as
constructive and inevitable. Conflict must lead to coordination, change and creation of new alternatives.
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