international standards where there is no evidence? (rob allport et al)

Where There Is No Evidence? Developing international standards and guidelines with limited

“hard evidence”

28th ALNAP Annual Meeting on Evidence and Knowledge in Humanitarian Action, Washington DC, March 2013

Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards

Rob Allport, Philippe Ankers, Andy Catley, David Hadrill, Guido Govoni, Solomon Hailemarium, Ong-orn Prasarnphanich, Cathy Watson

Developing LEGS• High demand• Limited evaluation and impact assessment cf. humanitarian

assistance in general• No peer-reviewed papers• Description of activity – very common– Tendency for agencies to view activity as impact– Flaws in setting objectives/describing activity

Process

Multi-agency Steering Group Field experience

Understanding contextsOverall decisions on structure and content

Sphere

Cross-cutting themesCore standards

Practitioner experienceEmail contributions Review of drafts

Plausibility

Biological logic of strategies and activities

“Hard evidence”

Impact assessmentsBenefit-cost analysisSystematic participatory impact assessment

Triangulate

Handling weak evidence• Acknowledge deficits in evidence, advise caution where

needed• Encourage impact assessment

o M&E as a LEGS Common Standardo LEGS as a reference point for evaluationo Agency-level issues

• Continuous feedback; frequent revision• Timeframes for change – accepting new evidence

http://livestock-emergency.net