A two-year project to strengthen global, regional and in-country needs assessment capacities in emergencies is launched today, 1 December. 

ACAPS (short for Assessment Capacities) is being set up under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Standing Committe (IASC) Needs Assessment Task Force (NATF).  

The project is a joint initiative of the NATF (represented by OCHA) and a consortium of NGOs – HelpAge International, Merlin and Norwegian Refugee Council.

Key partners will include the Overseas Development Institute, Tufts University, the Karolinska Institute, Columbia University and, relating specifically to building in-country capacities, the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB).

Accessible expertise

ACAPS is about providing accessible expertise, timely data and rigorous analysis to inform decision making by national governments and IASC humanitarian country teams in times of crisis.

Its strategy is to support in-country capacities, both to prepare for and to respond to crises through better coordinated multi-sectoral needs assessments.

A common approach for assessments will be developed by the NATF while acknowledging contextual variations and the need to build on existing strengths of IASC humanitarian teams.

Shared learning

ACAPS will provide needs assessment data in the early phase of sudden onset disasters. This will be done by setting up and training a global roster of experienced needs assessment specialists.

From this roster, ACAPS will then deploy teams to support up to 14 assessment preparedness or needs assessment missions during 2010-2011.  

Their task will be to support IASC Humanitarian Teams in the collection and analysis of data across all sectors and vulnerable groups in a given disaster.

All tools and approaches used by the teams will be endorsed by the NATF and tailored to the specific context and capacities in each country.

Assessment findings and lessons learned from ACAPS will be shared through the NATF networks and the NATF website upon its launch in 2010.

More about ACAPS