The Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB Project) is a collaborative capacity-building project aimed at improving the speed, effectiveness and delivery of humanitarian response programs. The ECB Project is a partnership between seven non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (CARE, International Rescue Committee, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision), and implements programs in one region and four countries known as consortia (the Horn of Africa, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Niger).
Background
The ECB Project concept came about through a series of meetings that began in 2003-2004 between members of the Inter-Agency Working Group (IWG). This group of NGOs includes the six ECB partners and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) who together shared the challenges of working in the humanitarian sector, and identified key capacity needs for their humanitarian response staff. These discussions led to the definition of the core themes of the project in Phase II: accountability and impact measurement, disaster risk reduction and staff capacity. The results of these findings were shared in a report entitled Report on Emergency Capacity, published in 2004. The project's core funding began with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and has since expanded to include support from the Department for International Development (DFID / UKAID), United States Agency for International Development's Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and the ECHO (European Commission).
Phase II (2008-2013) Phase II of the ECB Project included multiple objectives and program activities which were developed by teams within the five field consortia, including technical advisors from each thematic area (accountability and impact measurement, disaster risk reduction and staff capacity) and global level technical specialists from within the ECB partnering NGOs. Each of the five country or regional-level consortia was led by a different ECB organization, working closely with ECB agencies and other NGOs, INGOs and partners from across the humanitarian sector. Each program activity had a variety of outputs and learning materials that were shared and made freely available across the wider humanitarian community. The Project's website has more information about all of the initiatives that were undertaken and the resources that were produced, including a number of case studies that document stakeholder learning.
The ECB Project Consortia
The major themes of the project are integrated into the work of the five ECB Project Consortia (Bangladesh, Bolivia, Horn of Africa, Indonesia, and Niger). These five consortia are made up of the ECB partnering agencies at the global level together with additional partners in each country. The consortia develop their own program activities using ECB tools and approaches to improve upon their capacity to respond to disasters and develop their knowledge and skills around disaster risk reduction, accountability and impact measurement. Recent collaboration has led to joint emergency programming for Needs Assessments in Bolivia and Indonesia, and the development of disaster engagement protocols in Indonesia and expected soon in Bangladesh.
Good Enough Guide
The Good Enough Guide: Impact Measurement and Accountability in Emergencies is a free, downloadable tool that is one of the results of the collaboration between partners in the ECB Project. It is a guide focused on accountability to beneficiaries, and provides guidelines and practical tools on how to ensure that beneficiaries are involved in every step of the process in a humanitarian emergency: "In The Good Enough Guide, accountability means making sure that the women, men, and children affected by an emergency are involved in planning, implementing, and judging our response to their emergency too. This helps ensure that a project will have the impact they want to see." The Good Enough Guide, currently available in 14 languages, is accompanied by communications materials such as posters, leaflets and films, as well as a Training of Trainers module. All tools are available in several languages.
In 2015, the Good Enough Guide: Humanitarian Needs Assessments was published in collaboration with Assessments Capacities Project (ACAPS).