Introduction

1. Experience has shown that coordinating needs assessments and analysis is an essential element in

delivering a targeted response to the affected population. Throughout an emergency, credible and accurate

assessments contribute to the evidence-base that increase the effectiveness of humanitarian interventions,

ensure well-defined response planning and timely decision-making.

2. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC’s), Operational Guidance for Coordinated Assessments in Humanitarian Crises and the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) reference module are the primary policy references to guide coordinated neds assessments and analysis in humanitarian emergencies. Central to this are (1) the Multi-sector/cluster Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) approach and (2) the

Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO).

3. The commitments around IASC Transformative Agenda (TA) reinforced the need for a more evidence-based, strategic and prioritised humanitarian response. System-wide implementation of TA is strengthening the needs-based strategic planning and stronger coordination around the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC) – from assessment and analysis of needs to strategic response planning, resource mobilisation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of operations. From the normative development and consensus-building at the headquarters level, the focus has shifted over the years, to establish the necessary systems and foundations (preparedness) and to build the required capacity at the field level to coordinate and implement the IASC vision on common, predictable assessments and needs analysis. Furthermore, ‘Level III’ mega-disasters, the effort is placed on ensuring appropriate and trained surge capacity is available through OCHA, global clusters and stand-by-partners to support the processes. Also, recent developments at World Humanitarian Summit and specifically the Grand Bargain commitments have renewed focus on needs assessment and analysis.

4. While commitment and knowledge of the Coordinated Assessment1 approach is improving within OCHA and humanitarian partners, there are still major gaps in OCHA staff competencies2 related to needs assessment and analysis almost throughout the needs assessment life cycle. There is increasing need to build the OCHA’s staff and targeted humanitarian partner’s capacities in the country and at the regional level, to be able to lead, facilitate, assist, support, prepare, plan and implement the Coordinated Assessment processes for different contexts. OCHA and specialised needs assessment partners, in support of the country leadership, should be able to mobilise partners and resources for coordinated assessments. They should ensure ownership amongst the partners and together with wider humanitarian stakeholders produce high-quality joint analysis and the production of fast and useful outputs (situational and needs analysis, multisector needs assessment reports, structured inter-sectoral analysis and Humanitarian Needs Overview etc.). These assessment outputs if customise to the local context can inform help in prioritisation, inform critical decisions and support the development of response plans.

5. With this in mind, this CAIM training aims to upgrade the skills of OCHA and humanitarian actors with existing knowledge and skills in Coordinated Assessments and needs analysis. CAIM training is continuously

1 Coordinated assessment consists either of a single assessment exercise including various sectors, or of the combination of va rious sectoral assessments

analysed together. Coordinated assessments are planned and carried out in partnership with humanitarian actors. The analysis of these exercises form the basis for needs-based response planning and system-wide monitoring, and constitute the first step of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle (HPC). 2 In 2017, OCHA’s Needs Assessment and Analysis Section (NAAS) formerly known as Coordinated Assessment Support Section (CASS) developed Coordinated Assessment Competency Framework and launched Competency Survey. The survey results highlight competency gaps throughout the needs assessment and analysis life cycle for OCHA staff and specialised needs assessment partners responsible for coordinating needs assessment and analysis.

Coordinated Assessment and Information Management (CAIM) Training For OCHA staff, OCHA’s surge capacity partners, UNDAC members, specialised assessment partners & other humanitarian actors Online Learning 1 May – 25 M ay 2018 I Face-to-Face Training 27 M ay – 1 June 2018, Berlin, Germany

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evolving and focusing on translating guidance, tools, field practices, innovative concepts and practical solutions to implement needs assessment life cycle3. This practical training helps field practitioners to take leadership and support role in coordinating, managing, planning and implementing needs assessments in the field.

Objectives

The main objectives of the CAIM training are:

1. Strengthen OCHA and partner’s capacity to support Coordinated Assessments and needs analysis;

2. Provide learning opportunities building upon on practical examples, innovative field practices with latest policy and guidance.

3. Support implementation of Coordinated Assessment Lifecycle in humanitarian crises.

4. Build knowledge and skills through practical exercises and experience sharing.

Training

1. This CAIM course is organised by OCHA’s Needs Assessment and Analysis Section (NAAS) Geneva, with generous financial, administration and logistics support from Zentrum für Internationale Friedenseinsätze (ZIF) - Centre for International Peace Operations Berlin and German Federal Foreign Office. Training will be facilitated by OCHA and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

2. CAIM is a basic level training course, designed for an audience who already have some conceptual knowledge and skills in needs assessment and analysis with at least some practical experience. This training aims to upgrade the existing knowledge and skills of participants in needs assessment and analysis in a humanitarian crisis.

3. This CAIM training will offer 25 places to selected participants. There will be seventeen (17) places for OCHA staff and eight (8) places for external partners such as OCHA’s surge capacity partners, UNDAC members, specialised assessment partners and other humanitarian actors. Interested applicants can apply for the training until Friday 20 April 2018 (see section Application and Selection Process).

4. In the first phase of this training, all selected participants will attend mandatory two-hour per week online learning activities (exercises and assignments not included) from 1 – 25 May 2018. There will be multiple webinars which will divide the participants into small groups allowing them to interact in pre-course learning sessions with the facilitation team to go through key concepts and knowledge components of needs assessment life cycle.

5. In the second phase, face-to-face CAIM training will take place in Berlin from 27 May – 1 June 2018, focusing on strengthening the skills, knowledge and confidence of participants. Within the training, emphasis will on practical lessons learned from different context, field-based scenarios with useful tips, techniques and tools for needs assessments and analysis in humanitarian crisis and simulated journey through needs assessment life cycle.

Application and Selection Process

1. Interested OCHA and external partner applicants are requested to provide complete applications package by no later than Friday 20 April 2018. Please read “Applicant Eligibility Criteria 2018” document before applying for the CAIM course and make sure you are eligible for this course. CAIM application should include following three deliverables:

i. All applicants must be nominated with the written recommendation and signed consent by OCHA Head of Office, alternatively by the applicant's supervisor or OCHA’s standby partner. The consent

3 In 2017, OCHA Needs Assessment and Analysis Section developed needs assessment life cycle which consist of six main steps (Please see section Training Content).

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also requests undertaking that the participants will either lead or part in the core team that is committed to an active role at the country (including sub-national) or regional level preparedness and implementation activities for needs assessment and analysis. Please use the form attached to the email – HoO/Supervisor recommendation form.

ii. Please fill online CAIM applicant’s personal information online form - estimated time 20 minutes: https://ee.humanitarianresponse.info/x/#YZYJ

iii. Please fill online Coordinated Assessment competencies survey online form – estimated time 30 minutes: https://ee.humanitarianresponse.info/x/#YZpv

2. Please note that there are only 25 places available for upcoming CAIM training. OCHA’s Needs Assessment and Analysis Section (NAAS) in Geneva will be selecting the participants based on eligibility criteria, supervisor’s recommendation and competency survey results. Deadline for application submission is Friday 20 April 2018. Late and incomplete applications will not be entertained.

3. Once selected for the training, the participants will be expected to arrange their travel and 20% Daily Subsistence Allowance (organisation specific) through their respective offices budgets or sponsor budgets (surge capacity etc.). CAIM organisers will be responsible to provide visa support, accommodation for five nights, and all meals for the duration of the training. An admin and logistics note, training agenda, the schedule for the online learning activities, along with other background documents will be shared with the selected participants in due course.

Practical Information

1. Visa process for Germany can take time; it is recommended that all UN applicants for this training ensure that they have valid United Nations laissez-passer (UNLP) along with national passports ready, ensuring that on selection, participants can enter Germany on UNLP.

2. European Union (EU) nationals also do not require a visa to enter Germany.

3. ZIF will provide visa support to the selected participants .

4. The Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office will provide accommodation (single rooms) and all meals starting with dinner on Sunday, 27 May until lunch on Friday, 1 June 2018. Detailed admin and logistics note with venue details will be shared with selected participants.

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Specific Objectives

A. Reaction and Planned Action

After participation in the training, the participants will:

Join a pool of trained personnel willing to keep abreast of latest developments and contribute to the learning of others;

Express confidence in taking a leadership or support role in initiating, preparing and facilitating joint assessments such as Multi-cluster/sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA), Harmonize assessments and contribution to the development and coordination of Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) or Inter-sectoral joint analysis exercise.

Express confidence in their ability to facilitate coordination processes around designing, planning, data collection and analysis of need assessments, leading or providing support to Coordinated Assessment outputs;

B. Learning and Confidence After completion of the training, participants should:

Confidently establish coordination approaches and structures required to set up needs assessment and analysis in different context.

List and describe individual and organisational roles and responsibilities in the Coordinated Assessment processes and able to coordinate available resources;

Describe the key steps to delivering a fast, and high quality needs assessment, including how to approach, build consensus and coordinate partner activities, logistics and resources;

Outline the main steps to quickly and effectively to initiate MIRA or joint assessments, harmonize assessments, coordinate secondary or primary data analysis, and lead the planning and coordinate implementation of data collection exercises;

Confidence in implementing needs assessment and analysis life cycle;

Understanding of need assessment methodologies and their applicability, including use of Severity, and Reliability in data collection and analysis process;

Understanding of humanitarian caseload (population) definitions and able to apply basic estimation methodologies to local context;

Understanding of how to design assessment methodologies, questionnaires and collect data using mobile data collection (such as Kobo4);

Outline of steps and understanding of basic techniques of secondary and primary data analysis;

Basic knowledge and understanding of methods of analysis, focusing on a summary of results, comparison, interpretation, visualisation and mapping;

Outline the main steps to efficiently coordinate an HNO, and understanding of approaches to lead or contribute to the inter-sectoral/cluster analysis in different contexts;

Orientation to information management tools and practice techniques which support data processing and data analysis;

Identification of key information needs and formulation of customize strategies and approaches to carry out joint analysis and prioritization of needs, and;

4 KoBoToolbox is a suite of tools for field data collection for use in challenging environments. The software is free and open source. Most of the users are working in humanitarian crises, as well as aid professionals and researchers working in developing countries.

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Explain and demonstrate how to develop coordinated assessment outputs and utilise them for humanitarian response planning and decision-making processes.

C. Application and Implementation

When trained participants assume their function, they should:

Confidently assume a leadership or support role in the initiation, preparedness and facilitation of Coordinated Assessments;

Facilitate coordination processes around needs assessments, in particular, building consensus, agreeing on standard methodologies and tools and putting in place predictable needs assessment mechanism;

Facilitate high-quality joint data collection, management and analysis;

Efficiently ensure the development and dissemination of Situation Analysis, Assessment Reports and HNOs, and;

Effectively contribute to country level Coordinated Assessment preparedness activities;

Facilitate awareness and capacity building activities on Coordinated Assessments;

Implementation of Coordinated Assessments outputs to form basis for Humanitarian Response Plans and Flash Appeals.

Training Content

The training content will focus on six main steps of Coordinated Needs Assessment life cycle:

Fig.1 Coordinated Needs Assessment Life Cycle

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A. Setting-up coordination

Understanding of context and enabling factors

I. Leadership commitment and linking needs assessment to decision making II. Review of current context and coordination mechanisms

III. Reviewing of capacity and resources (Info management, assessment partners, cluster capacity, specialize assessment expertise)

Establishing coordination to support Coordinated Assessments

I. Authority and appointment of Assessment Coordinator II. Establishing/revising assessment coordination structure (including coordination of

assessments within Clusters) and appointing sector/cluster representatives. III. Assessment and Information Working Group (including technical working group):

Establishing inclusive assessment working group with clear purpose and terms of reference (ToR’s) and work plan

IV. Understanding stakeholder’s motivations and seeking commitments

Determining current state of needs assessments

I. Determining state of needs assessments II. Analysing existing needs assessments gaps (establishing and using assessment registry

– geography, sector, constraints etc.) III. Obtaining buy-in, ownership and agreeing on roles and responsibilities IV. Agreeing on data sharing modalities (security, anonymization, timely, relevant,

formats, dissemination etc.)

B. Planning

Establishing context specific baseline

I. Pre-crisis and in-crisis information II. Defining and agree on baselines (such as CODs, others)

III. Establishing Humanitarian Profile and onion model (PIN, Target, Reached) IV. Using COD’s in needs assessment and analysis

Availability of needs & response data and information gaps

I. Availability of needs and response data II. Agreement and approaches for “who is doing what, where and when” (4W)

III. Identifying Information gaps

Localize Coordinated Assessment strategy

I. Forming localise Coordinated Assessment strategy (joint assessment, harmonize assessment, continuous monitoring)

II. Assessment decision tree III. Defining objectives and scope of joint assessment and harmonize assessments IV. Agreeing on an Analytical Framework to guide the analysis (for different approaches) V. Joint Assessment (Natural Disaster – MIRA and Conflicts)

VI. Consultations on harmonised information to be collected in all sectoral assessments

C. Design of data collection

Designing Secondary Data Review (SDR) methods

I. Planning for hazard specific geo-spatial analysis using secondary data II. Using Analytical Framework in Secondary data review and defining analytical outputs

including severity

Designing Primary Data Collection methods

I. Creation or review of Analysis plan II. Choosing or reviewing assessment methodology to context and select sites

III. Collaboration, key steps and timelines IV. Using Severity in primary data collection V. Development and adaptation of data collection tools (questionnaire)

VI. Training, preparing field assessment teams and organize field visits

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Estimation of Humanitarian population figures

I. Humanitarian population figures estimation methods and linkage with response planning and monitoring

II. Pre-agreement on estimation model

D. Data collection

Secondary data collection and analysis

I. Secondary data review and analysis process and roles II. Secondary data collection and analysis

Primary Data Collection

I. Logistics, security, access and assessment partners II. Using paper vs mobile data collection (Kobo)

III. Primary data collection (preparation, coordination and collection)

E. Data processing & basic analysis

Data processing and summary outputs

I. Over and common challenges (data entry, cleaning etc.) II. Processing and structuring data

III. Summarizing data and calculations (sectors, locations, population groups, geography and using analytical framework as a guide)

IV. Severity estimation: aggregating Cluster-Sector, thematic etc. in the severity estimation tool

Basic data analysis

I. Analysis by question type II. Basic data analysis (Quantitative and Qualitative, Sector and inter-sector perspective)

F. Joint analysis

Joint analysis (inter-sectoral analysis)

I. Process and coordination of joint analysis II. Summarizing and interpretation of inter-sectoral analysis (methods & coordination)

III. Prioritising and informing decisions

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Methodology and Resources

The methodology of the training will include:

Participatory approaches using facilitated discussions.

Group work, desktop exercises.

Scenario-based simulations to allow for practical application of information and concepts presented.

Presentations in plenary.

Roleplay.

Practical work on different scenario based practical’s.

Training Focal Points

For further queries and the submission of CAIM application, please send email to all three following CAIM focal points:

Mr Fawad Hussain Syed Tel: +4122917 1553 Cell: +41766910179 Email: fawadhussain@un.org

Mr Kashif Rehman

Tel: +41-22-917 3462

Cell: +41 76 6910 177

Skype: Kashif.Rehman7

Email: rehman@un.org

Ms. Smita Kenkare Tel: +41 22 917 1704 Email: kenkare@un.org

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Previous CAIM courses

City and Country Year Focus Funded by

Bangkok, Thailand

2012 OCHA Surge Capacity Partners, UNDAC members, Cluster Coordinators

REDR Australia

Tallinn, Estonia 2013 OCHA Surge Capacity Partners, UNDAC

members, OCHA Staff and Humanitarian Partners

Government of Estonia and Surge Capacity Section

Berlin, Germany 2013 Global: OCHA Surge Capacity Partners,

UNDAC members, OCHA Staff and Humanitarian Partners

ZIFF – Centre for

International Peace Operations & German Foreign Ministry

Amman, Jordan 2014 For region Middle East and North

Africa, United Nations agencies, International and National NGOs, Government from the region

Middle East and North Africa

Regional Office of UNICEF and WFP

Berlin, Germany 2014 Global: OCHA Surge Capacity Partners, UNDAC members, OCHA Staff and Humanitarian Partners

ZIFF – Centre for International Peace Operations & German Foreign Ministry

Berlin, Germany 2015 Global: OCHA Surge Capacity Partners,

UNDAC members, OCHA Staff and Humanitarian Partners

ZIFF – Centre for

International Peace Operations & German Foreign Ministry

Cairo, Egypt 2015 For region Middle East and North

Africa, United Nations agencies, International and National NGOs, Government from the region

UN OCHA Regional Office for Middle East and North Africa

Berlin, Germany 2016 Global: OCHA Surge Capacity Partners,

UNDAC members, OCHA Staff and Humanitarian Partners

ZIFF – Centre for

International Peace Operations & German Foreign Ministry

Nairobi, Kenya 2016 For region Southern and Eastern Africa,

OCHA, United Nations agencies, and International NGOs from the region

UN OCHA Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa

Kristiansand, Norway

2016 Global: OCHA Surge Capacity Partners,

UNDAC members, OCHA Staff and Humanitarian Partners

UN OCHA Coordinated

Assessment Support Section (CASS)

Berlin. Germany 2017

Global: OCHA Staff, Surge partners, ASP

roster members and Assessment Partners

Two trainings were conducted in 2017 (May and August 2017)

ZIFF – Centre for

International Peace Operations & German Federal Foreign Office