Question: Application: Role and Value of Evaluation

The United Nations, the American Red Cross, and other international disaster response organizations worked together to care for the trauma survivors after a series of four devastating hurricanes smashed into Haiti one after another, before communities had time to regroup from the previous ones. Then the 2010 massive earthquake struck the island. The poverty in Haiti complicated responder effectiveness and may have compounded survivor trauma because residents had few resources. While back to back disasters may make it difficult to evaluate crisis management plans, they point to the importance of learning what worked and what went wrong.

Once a disaster has occurred, the evaluation process includes a review of what was effective in the response as well as what was not effective. Learning and improved insights from a disaster can require making strategic changes in an organization or community. Last week you encountered new procedures for disaster transportation recovery, such as design-build, that can change the manner in which communities recover from disasters. Organizations can take a lesson from this change in thinking and creativity and look at innovative practices for strategic planning and recovery. Therefore, evaluation is a key element in crisis management planning and recovery.