To complement and contextualize the launch of the Results-Based Protection video, InterAction also hosted a webinar discussion with RBP Steering Group members and practitioners to unpack what RBP is, how it diverges from standard approaches, and what the practical application looks like in humanitarian practice.
The following panelists of Steering Group members and practitioners were invited to speak to the relevance of RBP for humanitarian practice, what is required to implement results-based approaches operationally and organizationally, and broadly how to achieve meaningful and measurable protective impact:
- Kathrine Starup, Danish Refugee Council, Global Protection Advisor
Siri Elverland, Norwegian Refugee Council, Global Protection Advisor - Patrick Sooma, World Vision, Children and Protection Manager
- Brennan Webert, Danish Refugee Council, Protection Advisor
- Meghann Rhynard-Geil, Mercy Corps, Technology for Development Advisor, Digital Communities
- Ahmad Salem, World Vision, Protection Coordinator – Syria Response
Stakeholders reflected on how results-based methods for protection allow practitioners to “demystify” the notion that protection is too difficult to measure and shift from the reliance on pre-determined and prescriptive approaches to the nuanced and iterative, where actors are continuously revisiting and reflecting upon their assumptions, strategies, and actions to ensure they are evidence-informed and aimed at outcomes of measurable protective impact.
Key Discussion Points
- On a contextualized response: Interventions need to be grounded in a detailed understanding of the risk patterns people experience in emergencies and not based on generalizations or preconceived notions of vulnerability. This analysis should be built directly from the affected population themselves; therefore, it is important for actors to build relationships and trust with communities and invest in those relationships over time. Moreover, there should be an organizational culture around analysis that helps promote processes to inform strategies, decision-making, and actions to ensure programming is relevant and appropriate.
- On being adaptable: Maintaining flexibility from the design stage is key. Teams should ensure open lines of communication on a constant basis, integrating iterative reflection throughout the planning and implementation of a project. Non-structured and informal approaches help ensure easy information flow and allow staff at all levels to assess how the intervention aligns with overarching objectives.
- On collaboration and complementarity: To achieve collective protection outcomes, it is critical to step out of our silos – not only working with other protection actors but across sectors and disciplines. We need to constantly recognize which actors are best-placed at various points as the context shifts and changes, and who we need to engage to have access to both the population and information.
- On evaluation: What does it mean to track and measure protection outcomes maintaining flexibility as the context/ response shifts and changes? We need to consider how indicators can be dynamic throughout the response and how adaptability itself can be measured as it relates to achieving protection outcomes.