UNICEF REAL TIME EVALUATION
KENYA 2017
]REAL TIME EVALUATION OF UNICEF'S DROUGHT RESPONSE OPERATIONS IN KENYABackground: Due to poor rainfall in 2016 and 2017, nearly half of the counties in Kenya experienced a severe drought. This occurred at a time when the population in many remote areas, especially of the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), had not yet fully recovered from the effects of a drought in 2014. UNICEF began drought response efforts in 2016 to address signs of the oncoming drought. Upon the official declaration of a drought emergency in February 2017, the UN issued a flash appeal and UNICEF greatly scaled up their response efforts.Requirement: The UNICEF Kenya Country Office requested that a real time evaluation be conducted to monitor and enhance UNICEF’s response efforts throughout the most affected areas of Kenya. The primary purpose of this RTE was to inform and directly influence UNICEF’s ongoing WASH, nutrition and health responses in the drought affected areas with an emphasis on operational decision-making and collective learning.GEG Contribution: In partnership with the Centre for Humanitarian Change, GEG conducted the Real-Time Evaluation for UNICEF. This RTE involved a team of eight subject matter experts and a support staff using a rigorous mixed-methods approach, both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, focusing primarily on three of the eight DAC criteria for evaluations: appropriateness/relevance of the response, timeliness of action, and sustainability/connectedness of the response to the development agenda. In addition, it assessed UNICEF’s adherence to humanitarian principles (set out in the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action) and to what extent the 2011 Drought Response lessons have been applied to the current response. While the RTE primarily addressed the learning aspect, it also provided an important accountability tool to supported communities by assessing the appropriateness, timeliness and relevance of the interventions, as well as to donors by considering the timely release of funds.