Social Impact Analysis

"Strengthening the Social Analysis Component in Rapid Impact and Vulnerability Assessment"

Together with the IFRC, ProVention recently organised a workshop in January 2007 in Panama to share experience and ideas for strengthening the social analysis components in post-disaster rapid impact/vulnerability assessment. The workshop focused in particular on assessment in the first 1-4 weeks after a disaster, drawing on the knowledge and experience of a range of international and regional organisations. Results of the workshop will be made available soon on the ProVention website.

ProVention, IFRC, UNDP, ECALC, the World bank and other partners are now working to develop a Technical Reference Group on Social Analysis to inform the ongoing revision of the ECLAC assessment methodology.

Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA)

UNDP, ILO, and ECLAC are currently leading an initiative to develop an improved set of tools for post-disaster needs assessment. The primary purpose of the PDNA is to provide all actors in the recovery process, including national and local authorities, international agencies and local communities, with a multi-sectoral, technical overview of the damage and loss patterns and the principal rehabilitation and reconstruction needs and priorities to be addressed during post disaster recovery. The PDNA will also ensure smooth transition and better articulation between emergency response and early recovery.

For more information, see:

• Results of January 2006 PDNA planning meeting in Rome, Italy - http://www.recoveryplatform.org/rome.html

All India Disaster Mitigation Institute

Based on its experience working with communities in India that have been affected by large disasters over the last 10 years, AIDMI has developed a number of innovative tools for engaging with communities in post-disaster assessment and recovery planning, including the Community Damage Assessment and Demand Analysis guide. AIDMI has also developed a number of case studies to highlight experience and lessons learned after specific disasters.

Community Risk Assessment Toolkit (ProVention and other partners)

The CRA Toolkit is a collection of methodologies and case studies on participatory community risk assessment along with guidance notes to help users identify the most appropriate assessment methodologies and applications.

For more information, see Community Risk Assessment Toolkit

Community Risk Reduction Index (Oxfam)

Isabelle Bremaud, the Regional Humanitarian Adviser for Disaster Risk Reduction for Oxfam GB for Central America, Mexico and the Carribean, has presented an overview of a community risk reduction index that Oxfam developed with partners in Haiti. This index included 10 parameters covering physical safety, hazard awareness, organisational preparedness, recovery ability, social capital, psychological resilience, cultural capital, and political capital.

Oxfam’s current programming also emphasizes contingency planning at both national and community levels as a key tool for both risk reduction and planning for effect assessment activities. For more information, see the Risk-Mapping and Local Capacities: Lessons from Mexico and Central America report. Oxfam is also a partner in the Emergency Capacity Building initiative, a collaborative effort of seven humanitarian agencies that are jointly tackling common problems in emergency response and preparedness.

Emergency Food Security Assessment (WFP)

The World Food Programme has developed the Emergency Food Security Assessment to help identify immediate basic needs for water, food, and health care. This assessment is meant to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of the impact of disasters or other shocks at the micro level (community and household) and an analysis of the three dimensions of food security – availability, access, and utilisation. The assessment itself includes three phases: initial investigation, rapid assessment, and in-depth follow-up assessment of the situation and underlying causes. For more information, see :

• the Emergency Food Security Assessment Handbook under the Guidelines and Tools section at http://www.wfp.org/operations/Emergency_needs/
• a resource site for Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping (VAM)
• a review of VAM and other WFP tools

Health Assessment (PAHO)

The Pan American Health Organisation has a range of resource available about assessing health impacts after disasters and assessing the capacities of health facilities to respond to future disaster risks in PAHO's ‘Virtual Disaster Library for Disasters’.

Household Economic Approach (Save the Children)

"The HEA was developed by Save the Children (UK) in order to provide an effective approach to predicting the effects of drought and other economic shocks on rural populations. It has been widely adopted within Save the Children, by the UN and by governments, both to provide a quantitative description of the economy of a defined population and to analyse the relationship between a shock and the ability of households to maintain their food and non-food consumption."

For more information, see The Household Economy Approach: A resource manual for practitioners

Needs Assessment in Response (Tsunami Evaluation Coalition)

One of five thematic evaluations undertaken by the Evaluation Coalition (TEC) on the international humanitarian response the tsunami, "this report evaluates the adequacy, appropriateness and effectiveness of the assessment the first three months after after the tsunami. It focuses on the impact of assessment on the response of international agencies and institutional donors and, ultimately, on the affected populations".

For more information, see The Role of Needs Assessment in the Tsunami Response

Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (Benfield Hazard Research Centre)

Charles Kelly at the Benfield Hazard Research Centre, and in collaboration with CARE and other partners, has been developing a set of resources to guide Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment, including analysis of both the affected communities and the organisations involved in the response and recovery. This work has been developed around a set of core lessons learned from past disasters:

• environmental conditions often contribute to disasters
• disaster generate significant volumes of debris and recovery can’t start until the debris is removed
• relief and recovery aid can have a positive or negative environmental impact
• failure to systematically incorporate environmental impact assessment can jeopardize disaster management efforts
• there is presumption that recovery will not have new negative environmental impacts if something which was already existing is just being replaced

For more information, see the resources on Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in disaster response.

Kelly has also recommended a set of other related resources:

• Fast Environmental Assessment Tool (Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit) – in design
• Framework for Assessing, Monitoring and Evaluating the Environment in Refugee-related Operations (UNHCR/CARE)
• The Common Guidelines and Methodology for Rapid Field Assessment (IUCN)
• Brown/Green Assessments
• Natural Hazard Environmental Impact Assessment (Caribbean Development Bank)

Recovery Index (UN University – Institute for Environment and Human Security)

Together with the University of Colombo and other partners, UNU-EHS developed a “recovery index” in Sri Lanka that was a measure of recovery potential based on the estimated reconstruction cost of each house (by damage category) divided by the free available income of the household. The survey showed significant differences in the percentage of households needing more than 2 years to recover between the towns of Gall and Batticaloa. The survey also showed significant differences in projected recovery times among households with different primary job or livelihood types.

For more information, see a summary of the recovery index project .

REDLAC Rapid Assessment

The REDLAC partners in Latin America have drafted a methodology and tools of rapid humanitarian impact assessment to better support the develop of joint initiatives for disaster response that maximize the use of existing resources and and have the greatest impact on preventing and mitigating vulnerability to future disasters.

For more information, contact Douglas Reimer at the REDLAC Risk, Emergency and Disaster Task Force in Panama.

Tool for Participatory Assessment in Operations (UNHCR)

UNHCR has been working with several partner organisations to develop a tool to support UNHCR Branch and Field Offices in conducting participatory assessments together with partners. The tool covers a range of components in situation anaylsis including:

• Analysis of existing information
• Participatory assessment
• Participatory planning

For more information, see UNHCR Tool for Participatory Assessment in Operations

UNICEF

UNICEF has developed a range of tools for assessing protection, health, nutrition, education, HIV, and water & sanitation issues after disasters. For more information, see the UNICEF Emergency Field Handbook.

Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (IFRC)

The IFRC has developed a programme and set of tools for working with communities to identify vulnerabilities to disaster risks and capacities for implementing effective risk reduction measures. The approach focuses on active participation of key community stakeholders to enable them to identify and prioritise needs (which are not always as obvious as they seem). Now in use for more than 10 years, these tools are being used in increasingly effective ways to better understand various dimensions of vulnerability and to link post-disaster rapid assessment to previous knowledge of risk.

For more information, see the

• IFRC guide to vulnerability and capacity assessment
• IFRC Guidelines for Emergency Assessment

The World Bank

The World Bank uses the ECLAC methodology on a regular basis to estimate the broad range of disaster impacts and their implications on the economic and social sectors, physical infrastructure, and environmental assets. Recognising that there is a need to strengthen relationships and capacity for social sector analysis and coordination, the World Bank is also seeking to establish more effective partnering in assessment on the ground and has recently issued a revised policy on emergency response and recovery assistance. The ECLAC manual is available on the World Bank website: ECLAC Manual.

After the earthquake in Yogyakarta in May 2006, the World Bank worked closely with the IFRC to integrate assessment information on social impacts being undertaken by NGOs through community surveys into the comprehensive Bank and government-led assessment process. This cooperation was viewed to have been quite successful in terms of raising the profile of risk reduction in World Bank planning and in linking the broader socio-economic analysis of the World Bank to the assessment activities being undertaken by NGOs and other organisations at community levels and across a broad range of sectoral topics.

The World Bank Institute offers several training modules on assessment, including the Introduction to Damage and Reconstruction Needs Assessment Toolkit.

Related links

• Introduction to Damage and Reconstruction Needs Assessment Toolkit (World Bank Institute)