GUIDELINES
May 2014 – version 3
1
CONTENT
Introdution
What is KIRA?
What is Situation Analysis?
What is this tool?
Who is this tool for?
The KIRA Report
Kira Steps
Step 0: Preparedness
1.Establish joint assessment arrangements
2.Collect baseline secondary data
3.Update tools and methodology
4.Train stakeholders in methodology and coordination
Step 1: Emergency meeting – Decision to carry out a KIRA
Step 2: Collecting and Analysing Secondary Information
Step 3: Planning primary data collection
1.Forming the Assessment team
2.Identifying Sites to be Visited (Site Sampling)
3.Identifying of the Key Informant at administrative level
4.Identifying An Appropriate Time and Schedule
5.Identifying logistic needs
6.Facilitation of an orientation session
Step 4: Conducting Primary Data Collection
Step 5: Analysis of information collected (primary and secondary)
1.Processing data from the primary data collection
2.Agreement on the findings and recommendations
3.Identifying Response Priorities
4.Identifying Information Gaps
Step 6: Final Report
Step 7: Dissemination of the report and findings
Conclusion
May 2014 – version 3
1
Introduction
What is KIRA?
The Kenya Initial Rapid Assessment (KIRA) is a multi-sector, multi-agency mechanism whose purpose is to provide a fast overview of a humanitarian situation in Kenya, in order to:
•Support evidence based decision making in the early stages of a humanitarian response.
•To provide an understanding of how humanitarian needs vary across different affected groups.
•To identify where gaps may exist between needs and local/national capacity to respond.
•To identify further detailed information needs.
What is Situation Analysis?
In the context of the KIRA, situation analysis refers to the process of identifying and evaluating all relevant factors connected with anemergency situation. Understanding the situation is the beginning step in designing an emergency response. The more we know about the situation, the more informed and effective will be our response.
Situational analysis involves analysing needs of the different groups of affected populations using acommunity levelapproach and gaps analysis of the current response, in order to establish a prioritization of needs, vulnerable groups, and geographical area to be addressed on the onset of the event.
What is this tool?
This tool outlines a series of steps to follow for conducting a KIRA assessment from preparedness to the dissemination of the assessment findings. Its objective is to ensure clear understanding of the process by all the involved actors. It provides additional guidance for a moresystematic approach to community assessment and for assistingin systematizing the findings for more effective incorporationinto decision making and planning processes.
This package contains provide a quick and simple guide to the methodology aimed at supporting the whole process, including field activities. Please note, this is only part of the overall methodology – for more details, visit
Who is this tool for?
This tool has been designed for all governmental and non-government agencies in Kenya involved in providing a response when a humanitarian crisis strikes.
The KIRA Report
The first step for any assessment is to clearly define what information is available, what is missing and which kind and level of information we are looking for. The objectives of the assessment should be kept front and centre throughout all the stage of the process.
In order to facilitate understanding of the information needed to provide an effective and well-informed response, it is suggested that assessment teams being withreviewing the KIRA report format as a guide to the final aim of the assessment.
The table below shows the different sectionsof the KIRA report as well as the sources of information.
[LOCATION]: Kenya Initial Rapid Assessment Report[Date of report]
(Based on assessment carried out from [date range] and Secondary Data
Section / Content / Source
1. OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION AND CRISIS
Type of Event / What is the event? / Secondary data
Background on the Location / Population size data for the location, and any other relevant background on the area, which could be relevant, e.g. ethnic mix, poverty levels, malnutrition rates HIV rates, etc. / Secondary data
Affected areas and populations: / Insert a table with name of the affected areas and including number and percentage of affected population / Secondary and Primary data
Humanitarian profile / Describe the categories of affected groups, for instance in terms of displacement profile (e.g. displaced to collective centre/displaced hosted/non-displaced hosting, etc.), or potentially livelihood group. / Secondary and Primary data
2. METHODOLOGY: Brief description of the data collection methods
Secondary data sources / Give an indication of some of sources of secondary data which have been used/consulted, e.g. District Commissioners office, KRCS, etc.
Assessment team composition / Indicate the agencies represented in the team, and any specific expertise, e.g. sector specialists
Sites visited / Indicate sample size and how the sample was selected (number of sites and site characteristics).
Map / Showing affected locations, and sites visited as part of the assessment
3. PRIORITY NEEDS / KEY FINDING
Priorities needs / Provide an indication of priority needs by affected groups and geographical area (using the criteria used for sampling). / Primary Data and secondary data
Priority Vulnerable Groups / Indicate any vulnerable groups identified during the assessment as highly impacted by the current crisis. These may be specific to each need (e.g. ‘for protection issues, unaccompanied children have been identified as an especially vulnerable group’). / Primary Data and secondary data
Recommendation for immediate response / According to the priority needs identify, provide a list of recommendation for intervention. / Primary Data and secondary data
Strategic Recommendations / Based on the situation analysis, what are the overall recommendations? This should remain as strategic recommendations to the humanitarian responders as a whole.
4. SECTORAL BREAKDOWN
Immediate and Emerging Needs per sector / Summary analysis of the situation of different sectors will be provided.Sector are:
•Shelter and Non Food Item
•Food
•Livelihoods
•WASH
•Health
•Education
•Protection
•Information
For each sector, provide the following breakdown when information is available:
a.Pre-existing situation and vulnerabilities (e.g. what were the water sources prior to the floods, water treatment practices, safe sanitation coverage, any other key information)
b.Number of Households needing assistance of some kind (this needs to be presented as absolute number and percentage of total population of the area). Explain how this figure was reached (e.g. govt figures or some estimation based on the field assessment)
c.Priorities of the affected population (what do the community say their needs are in relation to water and sanitation?)
d.Changes that have been experienced as a result of the disaster (e.g. shift to unsafe drinking sources, children no longer going to school)
e.Assistance given so far (what was it and how much of it was there? What are the gaps)
f.Brief description of the type of assistance needed (i.e. the kind of assistance and the number of people needing assistance)
Comment on the gap between the available resources and the needs
5. CROSS CUTTING ISSUES: Ensure that all cross cutting issues where information is available have been mentioned.
Cross Cutting Issues / •If there are significant differences in priorities according to gender, indicate these.
•Information on HIV is not targeted in primary data collection - though the community may highlight it. However, if baselines HIV rates in the area are high and if access to health services has been impacted, it is reasonable to highlight these two facts as a basis for recommending further investigation.
•Whilst the KIRA methodology does not allow for structured age-disaggregated information, it is likely that this can be inferred from the vulnerable groups identified.
•PSEA: there is a question on issues with how aid is provided – ensure that this is reviewed and any issues highlighted
•Disability/specific needs: not collected explicitly in primary data collection, but likely to have been identified by the communities through the identification of vulnerable groups.
•Early recovery – should be covered under emerging needs. If there are any indications of how needs may evolve over time, ensure to mention this. / Secondary and Primary data
6. RESPONSE CAPACITY: Summary of overall capacity to respond, to identify where gaps may still exist
National Response Capacity / Indicate the likely national capacity to respond to the needs. This will include KRCS response, County or sub-county level response, national GoK response, and local organisations in the area. / Secondary data
International Response Capacity / If relevant, indicate the likely capacity which international actors may have in order to address the outstanding needs. / Secondary data
Way aid is provided / Summary information of the current mechanisms to provide aid and their effectiveness. / Secondary data
7. CONSTRAINTS: Are there any considerations, which might affect the ability to provide humanitarian relief?
Security /
Access / Does the security situation prevent access to communities? / Secondary and Primary data
Logistical Constraints / Are there any issues affecting logistics (e.g. fuel availability, transport price increases, road damage, bridge damage). / Secondary and Primary data
Funding Gaps / Is there insufficient funding to enable a response to the identified needs? / Secondary data
8. INFORMATION GAPS: Guidance for further information gathering/assessments
Validation / Verification Requirements / There may be areas of inconsistency between different secondary data sources, or between secondary and primary data. These should be highlighted in the report both for transparency, and also to encourage readers of the report to provide additional information to clarify the issue
Further Assessments / The KIRA is designed to provide a brief overview by generalists (not detailed sectoral information). However, the information gathered should provide alerts/red flags for sectors where further information is required - these should be highlighted in order to guide further detailed sectoral assessments. This will be particularly relevant for themes/sectors where specialists are required in order to gather information without doing harm, e.g. child protection, HIV.
9. ANNEXES
Timeline / If the situation has a complex history, it may be desirable to include a timeline of events.
Map / A map showing the assessment locations, and other geographical information relevant to the event (e.g. administrative boundaries, roads, flooded areas, camp locations, nearby towns).
Assessment Team Contact / Include details of how to contact the assessment team, to ensure that readers can easily contact someone if they have additional information or relevance to include.
All the sections recommended in this template should to be completed in order to provide sufficient information for strategic decision-makingin relation to responseplanning.
Kira Steps
In order to reach the objective of the KIRA mechanism, the following steps are necessary. They are also summarize in the KIRA Standard Operating Procedure chart, available in KIRA website.
Step 0: Preparedness
1.Establish joint assessment arrangements
It is recommended that County Steering Group detail regional roles and responsibilities further and should be describe in the Roles and Responsibilities document. Agreement on objectives and triggers for the KIRA should be reviewed and agreed upon annually.
Expertise and capacities at both hub and national level should be mapped on an annual basis. Hub agencies should provide a list of agencies that could take the following roles during an assessment:
•Lead organization
•Team leaders.
•Enumerators
2.Collect baseline secondary data
During the preparedness phase, a pre crisis secondary review has to be produced for each county in order to provide baseline information on the area.
Part of the secondary data review should include the drafting of probably scenarios for different conflict and/or natural disaster possibilities.
Pre crisis secondary data should be shared with stakeholders at the county level, including government partners, and a copy posted to the KIRA website.
The KIRA core group will be responsible to produce the pre crisis secondary data review.
3.Update tools and methodology
Tools and methodology will need to be reviewed annually, ideally in conjunction with the annual refresher training process. This process should include agreement on any revisions to:
•Assessment framework
•Primary data collection tools (including field testing if the tools have been heavily modified in light of lessons learned, updates to any guidelines)
•Agreement on sampling approach
•Agreement on reporting templates
4.Train stakeholders in methodology and coordination
Each year KIRA core group should carry out a short KIRA refresher training at both county and national levels to ensure that stakeholders, including government partners, are up to date on assessment content, disaster time frame, and process.
Step 1: Emergency meeting – Decision to carry out a KIRA
An emergency meeting will take place:
•As soon as a disaster that is likely to require intervention is known to have occurred,
•When early warning signal indicate a disaster that is likely to require response is imminent,
•When triggers have been reached for slow onset events that indicate response is required.
During this meeting, the decision to carry out a KIRA has to be taken and also the assessment specific coordination responsibilities need to be determined:
•Overall coordination lead
•Coordination of secondary data compilation
•Community level coordination lead and team
•Coordination of information management
According to the county joint assessment arrangement, this meeting could be held by the County Steering Group or the County Disaster Management Committee.If more than one county if affected, the meeting will take place at national level.
The Lead organization designated during the meeting will have to fill the Term of Reference template.
Step 2: Collecting and Analysing Secondary Information
The first step of a KIRA assessment consist of collecting and analysing reliable secondary information in order to develop an understanding of:
•What was the situation before the event?
•What is already known about the impact of the event?
•Where are the information gaps?
•Does similar crisis happened in this area? What were the lessons learned?
•How many administrative areas are affected?
There are two kind of secondary information:
Pre-disaster secondary information includes:baseline population figures, demographic breakdown, poverty mapping, lessons learned from past events…
In-disaster secondary information includes:assessment reports, media reports, satellite imagery, weather reports
This will allow a determination as to whether primary data collection is needed and is feasible.
This step is crucial and MUST be done. The more time the assessment teamuse for the collection and analysis of secondary data, the easier and faster the primary data collection process. Consequently, enormous human and financial resources could be saved. During this step, the KIRA Core group will provide a secondary data review on pre crisis situation.
The Secondary data review should be shared approximately 3 days after the decision to launch an assessment and a decision to cancel the assessment could be done if the enough information has been collected in order to inform strategic decision and response planning
At the end of this step and if the field assessment is confirmed, the assessment team start to populate the KIRA report.
Step 3: Planning primary data collection
Primary data collectionplanningincludes:
1.Forming the Assessment team
•Multi-agency & multi-sector: Teams should be composed of members from different agencies and different sectors. This approach is designed for generalists as opposed to sector specialists but will benefit from sectoral expertize, especially during the analysis phase. As much as possible try and include local partners from the area.
•Team leader who understands the KIRA methodology
•At least 5 people including two men and two women and a team leader to ensure that both male and female community group discussions can be held (female assessors for female interviews/discussions, male assessors for male interviews/discussions)
•Cross cutting issues: If possible, include a specialist in cross cutting thematic areas (e.g. Protection, Gender, GBV, HIV/Aids, Disability or Age), who can offer technical support in each stage of the process –planning, assessment, analysis and report writing.
•Common language: All team members should be able to converse with communities in a language they can easily understand (e.g. local dialect or Kiswahili).
•Location and local context: At least one member of the team should be familiar with the locations.
•Local contact person: Identify someone who will contact all relevant local authorities and help to arrange field visits (e.g. preparing the community). This will often be the team leader.
2.Identifying Sites to be Visited (Site Sampling)[1]
•Identify diversity factors: In consultation with local partners, use the initial assessment of secondary data to identify the factors which are likely to influence the way people have been affected by the event (e.g. livelihood group, displacement status).
•List all relevant categories:Within each factor, identify what the relevant categories are. (E.g. for displacement status, you might identify categories such as: displaced people in spontaneous settlement, displaced people in host family …).
•Select sites: Once you have identified the relevant categories for context, select locations to target each of the categories identified. If there are several different categories of affected groups found at the same place (e.g., hosting and hosted populations live together, but will have different needs), these should be treated as separate site with information collected separately.
•Number of site:The purposive sampling aims to focus on a small number of sites and collect enough information to get a good picture of the situation. But to ensure credible primary data collection, a minimum of site per category as to be considered. Generally, it isa minimum of 4- 5 sites per category.