Learning from Learning Reviews: Lessons learned about conducting project impact reviews

PROJECT ALERT

The Adaptive Livelihoods and Emergency Readiness and Timely Response of Communities (ALERT) project sought to enhance the capacities of communities affected by recurrent natural disasters for disaster preparedness, response and recovery, enabling them to be better equipped to co-lead relief and recovery efforts in collaboration with local authorities. The project was implemented from October 2017 to October 2020 in the communities of Balangiga, Quinapondan, Salcedo and Lawaan in the province of Eastern Samar. The project was developed and implemented by Oxfam Pilipinas in partnership with the Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP), the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Inc (PRRM) and the Regional Climate Change, Research and Development Center of Visayas State University (VSU-RCCRDC) in Region VIII or Eastern Visayas. Building on previous DRR interventions, Project ALERT brought in an additional emphasis on the integration of asset protection into DRR and humanitarian response in order to strengthen community resilience and reduce vulnerability.

Project ALERT was part of the program “Strengthening Community Preparedness, Rapid Response and Recovery in Asia/Pacific Islands”, also known as the Asia Pacific Local Innovation for Transformation (AP-LIFT), a multiyear program implemented in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the Philippines.

ANNUAL IMPACT REVIEW

The Annual Impact Review (AIR) is a project learning activity envisioned as a space for Project ALERT implementers—Oxfam, CDP, PRRM and VSU-RCCDC—to critically track and reflect on the project’s progress, agreed strategies and changes that could be observed and experienced over time in relation to the project’s interventions. Moreover, AIR was also conceived as a platform for synergy, cross-learning and joint planning, which implementing organizations could tap while building greater consensus and ownership of the processes and outcomes the project wished to achieve.

As a learning activity, AIR employed participatory processes, methods and tools that allowed participants to jointly acknowledge and celebrate successes and achievements of project implementation, analyze gaps and areas for improvement, and exchange views on issues within and outside the project context and how these could be addressed while identifying ways to support each other.