What was the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition?
The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) was set up in 2005 to evaluate the system-wide humanitarian response to the Indian Ocean tsunami. Housed under ALNAP, the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition brought together over 50 member agencies, including United Nations organisations, non-governmental organisations, the Red Cross, and private donors .
"One of the extraordinary things about the TEC was how quickly the agreement to conduct the evaluation came together. A few quick phone calls was all it took to get many organisations involved.”
Niels Dabelstein, former Head of the Evaluation Department of Danida, Vice Chair of the DAC Evaluation Group and member of the TEC Core Management Group
What were the aims of the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition?
The TEC had three aims:
- To improve policy and practice in future humanitarian crisis responses
- To provide accountability to those who received support and to public and private donors.
- To test this collective approach as a possible model for future evaluation and learning in the humanitarian sector
Why was the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition important?
The TEC represented the most comprehensive evaluation of a humanitarian response since the Joint Evaluation of the Rwanda Crisis in 1994.
As a system-wide evaluation, the TEC set the foundation for some of today’s most important humanitarian agendas such as cash-based programming, accountability to affected people and localisation.
The TEC sowed the seeds which have germinated over time, and now we’re still trying to implement the major recommendations of the TEC. It helped consolidate a consensus that transformational change is needed.
John Mitchell, former Director of ALNAP, coordinating body for the TEC
4 key recommendations from the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition
After conducting five independent studies of the international response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition identified four key recommendations
The international humanitarian community needs a fundamental reorientation from supplying aid to supporting and facilitating communities’ own relief and recovery priorities
International humanitarian actors should improve the way they coordinate their activities and include those from the affected countries themselves in order to achieve greater coherence in humanitarian responses.
The international humanitarian relief system should establish an accreditation and certification system to distinguish agencies that work to a professional standard in particular sectors.
All humanitarian actors must improve the current funding system’s impartiality, efficiency, flexibility and transparency, in alignment with good donorship principles.
What changes did the TEC recommendations lead to and where is the system still stuck?
Explore our summary of progress and sticking points in humanitarian reform since the 2005 tsunami response collective evaluation.
Explore key documents from the TEC
