Evaluation Recommendations
BRC generally accepts all the recommendations presented by the evaluators.
Regarding Recommendation 1, and the “establishment of international roster of livelihoods, infrastructure and governance experts to help identify an on-going source of appropriate human resources”, BRC notes that it did have existing registers, but its members were either unavailable or lacked the skillset that the urban context required.
BRC did engage a large number of delegates, often in non-traditional areas of expertise for the organisation. Learning from the challenges associated with engaging appropriate resources in a competitive market, BRC has since made a commitment to move away from direct implementation of construction programmes in the future.
BRC also notes Recommendations 2 and 6 regarding the engagement and inclusion of local authorities with caution. BRC acknowledges that it is absolutely correct to engage local authorities at all stages of a programme and notes that it did commit extensive time and resources to achieving this aim under the URRP. However, the challenges of effectively engaging the local Haitian authorities to support the implementation and maintenance of the infrastructure work made the desired outcome unlikely within a meaningful timeframe. An under-resourced, overwhelmed and dysfunctional administration made it extremely difficult to arrange even a face-to-face meeting, let alone engage on a meaningful level to support programmes in an inner city slum.
BRC also highlights Recommendation 3 concerning beneficiary involvement in housing design. While some did not receive the final designs and layouts they had requested, this was not due to a lack of participatory approaches, but rather resulted from Haiti’s notoriously poor and dangerous building practices, as well as the need to ensure an equitable use of space and access.