ECB July 2010 Newsletter

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Dear colleague,

Tracking our progress against defined activities in all areas of the ECB project is critical to the long-term impact and learning scope of this innovative initiative. Discover some of the highlights from our first agency self-assessment survey.

Delivering accountability during emergency response programs requires ongoing awareness building and support for field staff. Read on to find out how an inter-agency team developed multiple posters, leaflets and training films to support your accountability programs.

The earthquake in West Sumatra last year brought together ECB agencies to test and review the Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) template developed in Phase I of the project. Important lessons learnt are shared in a short summary and JNA Case Study below.

We’re proud to announce the launch of our first ECB Joint Advocacy Strategy in Bangladesh. Recent mobilization activities one year after Cyclone Aila demonstrate the consortium’s urgent call for wider consultation and revision of the new Disaster Management Act.

Broadening partnership beyond the ECB agencies is intended to harness expertise, reduce duplication, increase transparency and galvanize change across the humanitarian sector. The ECB Partnership Framework and recent work with the Humanitarian Futures Programme demonstrates our progress in the area.

ECB agencies in the Horn of Africa are working together with People in Aid to tackle the challenge of improving staff retention in the region. A report is available with recommendations that are already inspiring follow-on activities across the consortium.

Contact us to find out more about any of initiatives. We always look forward to receiving your feedback and questions.

With thanks and best regards,

Andrea Stewart
ECB Communications Manager

ECB Agencies Assess their Progress One Year On If you're interested to know about the progress and challenges we're reviewing after our first agency level self-assessment, you can read the highlights before our full assessment report is published in August.

New Tools to Help you Put Accountability into Practice Training field staff and humanitarian workers on what accountability to disaster affected communities' actually means and how we go about doing it under stressful conditions remains an ongoing challenge for us all. We've developed new training films, posters and leaflets in multiple languages that you can download and adapt for free. We'd also like to share the story behind how a dedicated inter-agency team researched, developed and field tested and the tools in emergency contexts.

Key learning shared from Joint Needs Assessment in West Sumatra The ECB Indonesia consortium lead our work to develop a practical, easy-to-access Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) template and data capture system. Working together with a team of global accountability advisors we reveal in a new Case Study the steps we've taken forward and the challenges we're determined to overcome following the 2009 West Sumatra earthquakes.

ECB first Joint Advocacy Strategy underway in Bangladesh Launching our first ECB Joint Advocacy strategy in Bangladesh attracted widespread media attention and intense debate with government officials working on the new Disaster Management Act. Harun Or. Rashid coordinates our determined efforts to bring about lasting change together with the support of ECB agencies such as Oxfam.

ECB Partnerships: For the future, of the future Identifying capacity gaps, supporting innovation, and acknowledging private sector expertise are just of the reasons why we’ve been continually reaching out across the sector for the past year. Discover some of the critical factors we’ve identified for partnership success.

Staff Retention under Review in the Horn of Africa If you've ever faced challenges keeping your best humanitarian response personnel you should read our latest report from the Horn of Africa. Stay in touch with our team to find out how we work together to share experience, learn from best practice and retain our best aid workers across the region.

News in Brief

Update on DRR: We've led an important sector scoping exercise on behalf of ECB’s DRR Adviser Group with about 30 organisations / initiatives focused on DRR and CCA. The purpose of this exercise has been to support the DRR Adviser Group with regard to the development of the proposed Practitioner’s Guide for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation and new capacity development materials. The results of this short study will be fed into the Practitioner's Guide development phase once funding is found for this joint initiative. Our scoping exercise findings will be available soon.

Education is key: ECB teams are preparing a series of abstracts on collaboration and learning for next month's Symposium on Disaster Impact and Assessment in Asia. ECB Agency Manager Richard Jacquot is also collaborating with a team of experts at the Korbel School of International Affairs at the University of Denver to develop a new Master’s in Development Practice program.

People in Aid: Join a new networking site People in Aid Interactive. You can contribute to wikis and post your ideas on open discussion forums to learn and share your peers across the sector. 

ALNAP: Forging links between accountability practitioners is vital. View the latest Real Time Evaluations and find out what's going on across the community on ALNAP's Haiti Learning and Accountability Portal.

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