How do crisis-affected communities define a ‘successful’ humanitarian intervention?

This webpage explores how crisis-affected communities define "successful" humanitarian interventions, focusing on relevance of aid, staff behaviour, and long-term impact.

It offers valuable insights for M&E practitioners to design evaluations aligned with local priorities in FCV settings.

This webpage, published by Start Network, explores how crisis-affected communities define "successful" humanitarian interventions. Using insights from interviews with displaced individuals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after the 2021 Nyiragongo volcanic eruption, the study identifies key elements that communities value, including relevance of aid, staff behaviour, and long-term impact. It challenges traditional Western metrics of success and offers community-driven perspectives on what makes interventions effective.

Key features

• Meeting real needs: The resource highlights the importance of evaluating whether humanitarian interventions address the most critical needs of the community, ensuring that aid is relevant and responsive to the local context. This involves understanding community priorities and ensuring equitable distribution of resources.
• Staff behaviour: The behaviour of humanitarian staff is central to how communities perceive the success of interventions. Respectful, dignified treatment without discrimination is crucial, and issues such as favouritism or mistreatment at distribution sites undermine trust and success.
• Long-term impact: Communities expressed the need to assess whether interventions result in lasting improvements. Beyond immediate relief, success is also measured by how well the aid helps individuals regain independence and rebuild their lives after the crisis.
• Community involvement: The resource emphasises the role of local communities in shaping and delivering aid. Involving community members in needs assessments, decision-making, and distribution processes helps to reduce conflict and ensures that the intervention aligns with local priorities and realities.

How would you use the resource?

M&E practitioners in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCV) can use this resource to design evaluations that prioritise community-defined success criteria. It encourages practitioners to incorporate indicators related to dignity, relevance, and long-term impact into their evaluation frameworks. This approach ensures that interventions not only provide immediate relief but also contribute to sustainable recovery and community resilience.

Why are we recommending it?

This resource is relevant for M&E in FCV contexts because it prioritises local perspectives, ensuring that interventions are evaluated based on criteria that reflect the real needs and experiences of affected populations.