Event | Assessing the effectiveness of humanitarian aid from the U.S. and other donors

Dara International Presents: The Humanitarian Response Index Assessing the effectiveness of humanitarian aid from the U.S. and other donors and measuring commitment to best practices. Featuring:

• Moises Naim, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy
• Larry Minear, Director of the Humanitarianism & War Project, Tufts University’s Feinstein Famine Center
• Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Humanitarian Response Index
• Riccardo Polastro, Head, Evaluation Department, DARA

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. (continental breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m.) Location: 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Room #2006 (2nd Fl), Washington DC One block off Dupont Circle, next to Carnegie and SAIS How well is the United States performing in emergency and disaster relief compared to other countries? Where is it demonstrating leadership? What can it learn from other donors This event explores these controversies, building on the new findings recently published in the “Humanitarian Response Index”, researched by DARA. We invite you to discuss the findings of DARA’s report and its implications for reform of U.S. humanitarian aid. Literature about the Humanitarian Response Index will be available. In recent years, the international community has begun to look more closely at how effective aid has been in helping developing countries eradicate poverty. In the spirit of accountability, the world’s major donors launched the “Good Humanitarian Donorship” (GHD) principles and platform in 2003 that define standards, good practices, and commitments in how they provide humanitarian aid for wars, famines, refugees and disasters. A systematic assessment of individual donors’ performance in humanitarian aid, alongside donor patterns in general, has been lacking. To address this gap, DARA launched the Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) that measures how well donors – including the United States – are performing relative to their commitment to the GHD principles. By ranking and benchmarking, donors can better understand their strengths and weaknesses and, ultimately, improve the quality of their humanitarian aid delivery. DARA, based in Madrid, Spain, is an independent, non-profit organization committed to the quality of humanitarian action and development aid through evaluation and research. * Please RSVP to Rachel Kleinberg at: rkleinberg@daraint.org, 202-728-8681