Essays on Humanitarian Effectiveness

With increased focus on results in the humanitarian sectorover the last 20 years, effectiveness has been understoodas ‘doing what works’ as efficiently as possible. Significantenergy and resources have been invested in technocraticmeasures to improve effectiveness of humanitarian actionthrough strengthening accountability, developing technicalproficiency, building an objective evidence base, andachieving greater value for money. But whose understandingof effectiveness has this been built on and how closely does itreflect the understandings of people for whom humanitarianaction is enacted?Essays on Humanitarian Effectiveness analyses the impactof context on understandings of and approaches toeffectiveness. The five essays in the collection presentstories of how effectiveness has been constructed,discussed, operationalised, or even imposed in differentcontexts (in Liberia, Niger, the Philippines, South Asia and theSyria region), based on research across nine countries.