3: Coordination and Complementarity in Humanitarian Assistance
This important study will be the first ever external evaluation of DG ECHO and will focus on the DG’s work between 2000 and 2005. The study will also focus on the implementation of the requirements of the 3C’s in the work of ECHO, and will for example focus on how the relief work by the EC completes the work which is done by individual EU Member States. Coordination in humanitarian assistance is also among the various important items which the study will address.
Lead agency: ECHO
Partners: France, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom
An evaluation of DG ECHO’s work over the period 2000 to 2005 on: the implementation of the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the article 20 evaluation of ECHO; and the implementation of the requirements of the Commission’s reform programme. DG ECHO has mapped these out in the ‘ECHO Reform Action Plan’. In their work the consultants are required to consider and present the human and financial resources constraints facing DG ECHO in meeting these challenges, and the fact that the various past recommendations, requirements and initiative reflected a position relevant to a certain point in time, that may have since changed, or otherwise developed, or have been overtaken by events.
Further the evaluation will focus on DG ECHO’s implementation of the so-called 3 C’s requirements. Under the Maastricht Treaty European Union development cooperation is required to respect Coordination, Complementarity and Coherence in its work (the 3 C’s). Although there is no explicit reference to humanitarian aid in the Maastricht Treaty it is considered implicit that DG ECHO is obliged to respect the 3 C’s. Further, the OECD DAC criteria as applied for evaluating humanitarian action also include coherence as a standard criteria and consider that coordination, although not a formal DAC criteria, requires close attention. In respect of complementarity, the EC is meant to complete not replace the policies pursued by the Member States, this is as pertinent for relief as for developmental actions. Therefore late in 2002 the standard ToRs used by DG ECHO for the evaluation of geographical actions started to include references to the 3 C’s for evaluators to consider as a part of their analysis, including progress towards the objective of LRRD. DG ECHO’s implementation with regard to the Member States’ implementation will also be considered.
