GPPi publishes a report on what works in protection and how we know it
GPPi Fellow Urban Reichhold and Associate Director Andrea Binder, together with independent consultant Norah Niland, have written a new study commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) that explores how success is defined and measured for different protection activities carried out by humanitarian and human rights organizations.
The authors argue that unqualified claims asserting a general “failure to protect” civilians in situations of armed conflict and natural disaster need to be critically examined. Humanitarian organizations, for instance, may be highly effective in providing specialized care to the victims of violence and thereby contribute to reduced civilian suffering. At the same time, they may fail to eliminate or at least reduce the underlying causes of violence against civilians linked to harmful policies, administrative practice or military tactics employed by state and non-state actors.
Building on a conceptual framework fleshed out in its initial chapters, the study proceeds with a review of existing empirical evidence on the effects of different types of protection interventions. The team reviewed over 170 documents, including academic works on the topic, relevant evaluation reports and other “how to” handbooks and guidelines. The literature review revealed only a few sophisticated attempts at measuring the impact of different protection interventions. It is, in fact, far easier to find negative examples of humanitarian and human rights protection work than positive ones. This is a central finding of the literature review.
The report concludes with a tentative agenda for future research, which builds on the evidence gathered through the literature review and expert interviews with 40 individuals working with key donors, humanitarian and human rights organizations and research institutes. Different research questions developed in the final part will feed into a larger DFID research project on the effects of humanitarian protection efforts.
Click here to read the report.