On 6 February 2023, two devastating earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 hit Kahramanmaraş in southeastern Türkiye, impacting areas in both Türkiye and north-west Syria.
In response, the Emergency Relief Coordinator initiated the Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE) to assess the collective humanitarian efforts of IASC member agencies in addressing the needs of the affected communities. The evaluation covers the regional mechanisms that the response relied on for coordination and support.
We are delivering evidence-informed findings and recommendations that are collectively owned by the relevant stakeholders and which support learning to inform future action.
Download the inception report here
Our role
We are working with regional experts from RMTeams in Türkiye and Syria to complete the evaluation.
Alongside serving an accountability purpose, our evaluation is focused on providing learning and actionable insights that can inform ongoing operations in Syria and Türkiye, as well as future L3 responses.
Methods and approaches
The evaluation supports participatory approaches to analysis and the formulation of findings and recommendations. This approach is being used to ensure findings are robust as well as to manage sensitivities and ensure broad buy-in. As such, we engaged with stakeholders at an early stage (during the evaluation’s data-collection phase) to present them with the evidence as it emerges and solicit their inputs into the interpretation of evidence.
The operating environments and the role and engagement of national authorities in Syria and Türkiye are sharply distinct, requiring context-specific analyses at a country level. This way influencing factors unique to each country can be given full consideration.
Our overall evaluation design is a theory-based, mixed-methods approach. The guiding framework for the evaluation is a reconstructed Theory of Change (ToC), which has been used to identify focus areas for the evaluation and key assumptions. Our overarching analytical approach for the evaluation is based on contribution analysis and process review.
The process review approach will be used to assess aspects of the Türkiye and Syria earthquake response against the relevant preparedness strategies/plans and response frameworks. This will allow the evaluation team to determine whether certain actions and measures have been carried out as intended in line with the Scale-Up Protocols and specific IASC guidance.
Contribution analysis will allow us to answer the question of how IASC members contributed to the results expressed in the reconstructed ToC, and therefore help us answer the evaluation goal of assessing results achieved and outcomes generated by the response. To support the above approaches, a theory-based model was developed at the inception phase, outlining the key steps and assumptions that underpin a successful L3 emergency response.
Intended outcomes
Our findings are designed to promote learning and facilitate more effective humanitarian responses to future natural disasters.
Additionally, the evidence generated serves to determine whether actions and measures taken were carried out inline with protocols and guidance.
Resources
Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE) of the collective response to the Earthquakes in Türkiye/Syria
Inception Report