MEAL in emergencies. Oxfam has continued to use the Humanitarian Indicator Tool (HIT) methodology in three emergency response programmes annually, and this year these were carried out in Nepal, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The average score for the overall quality across the three responses evaluated was 59%, 1% below the milestone and correspondingly lower than previous years. The timeliness of the Ebola response was the main limiting factor in the achievement of the 60% target for quality. Oxfam invested in learning from this response and an external evaluation fed into an organisational reflection event. Oxfam‟s response in Nepal, on the other hand, was very timely, partly due to the level of emergency preparedness work undertaken by all agencies, including Oxfam. As the response came very soon after the Ebola response, Oxfam followed its “no regrets” policy, using surge capacity to the full rather than scaling up gradually. The response scored 64% overall. The Real Time Evaluation methodology continues to be used in all responses and has proved to be an effective way of making improvements to programmes at an early stage. An extra benchmark has been added in order to try and track learning from previous responses in a country or similar responses in other places. The formation of the Global Humanitarian Team has meant that advisory support from all Oxfam affiliates has come together in a more effective and efficient way to provide support to emergency programmes. This team will also be carrying out several small pieces of research: improving beneficiary feedback through the use of an app on staff phones; integrating the quantitative scoring of programme quality that was in the HIT into the qualitative outcome evaluations required by most donors; and finally, testing the methodology Contribution for Change that will measure impact. There is a section in each project report on project-level MEAL (attached in Annexes 2.1- 4.2).
