This report presents the results of an exercise to collect and analyse the humanitarian needs assessment reports conducted in the Central African Republic (CAR) since December 2013. It aims to reinforce humanitarian actors’ understanding of the CAR crisis by: 

• analysing the humanitarian needs assessments landscape;
• identifying the limitations of these assessments; and
• presenting courses of action to reinforce practices and minimise constraints. 

This monitoring needs assessments (MNA) exercise does not cover all the information available and required for an analysis of the crisis. It focuses on the assessment of humanitarian needs over a set period: 1 December 2013 to end June 2014. It therefore does not include assessments made prior to this period, nor works on the CAR and the crisis in the country such as thematic or analytic reports.

The MSNA is a multi-organisation, multi-sector humanitarian needs assessment in five oblasts of Eastern Ukraine affected by the current crisis. The assessment was initiated by the NGO Forum in Ukraine.

The assessment was a collaboration of humanitarian actors in Ukraine, led by the steering committee of the NGO Forum. Field assessment teams (enumerators) and resources were provided by participating NGOs. Contributions to secondary information and joint analysis of findings were made by the broader humanitarian community in Ukraine, including the clusters. Data collected by the HSM was made available by OCHA and merged with the KI data, collected by the MSNA. The assessment process was facilitated by needs assessment experts from ACAPS.

The aim, as identified by NGO stakeholders in early 2015, is to update knowledge on the condition and status of the population in order to prioritise interventions. Limited information was available that gave a consolidated overview of the situation across the affected area. For the NGO community, it was also important to design an assessment approach that gave voice to people directly impacted by the crisis.

Currently the HSM is the primary multi-sectoral assessment conducted in Eastern Ukraine1 . It is an inter-sectoral joint needs assessment mechanism coordinated by OCHA. The KI data presented here is a combination of the HSM Round 5 data (collected through the usual HSM mechanism) and data collected by the MSNA teams. All data were collected during late February and early March 2015. 

After anti-government protests that began in Kiev in late 2013 resulted in a change of government in Ukraine and, following the Russian annexation of Crimea, in April 2014 tensions erupted between pro-Russian and proUkrainian groups in the eastern Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk. Violent unrest has impacted these areas now for almost a year. Parts of Donetsk and Luhansk are no longer under the control of the government of Ukraine and have been declared, by the non-government forces, as independent republics. Government support to services within these areas has been stopped. This includes funding to schools and hospitals as well as the payment of social benefits and pensions to people living in these areas.

Over one million people have displaced to government controlled areas (GCAs). Many families have been displaced for months and have lived through the harsh winter conditions. The financial resources of many internally displaced people (IDP) are thought to be exhausted, having moved away from their homes and lost employment.

The conditions of those internally displaced is compounded by the strained economic situation in Ukraine and the increases in prices of food and essential commodities. Some families are separated, on either sides of the line of control, and movement across this line is difficult for a range of reasons including physical access, security and the need for permits to do so. Furthermore, land mines, UXOs and other remnants of war are an ongoing concern for people living in areas where fighting took place. Damaged schools and infrastructure prevent essential services from operating in some areas.

The international humanitarian community and Ukrainian civil society organisations are responding to the crisis. In December 2014 the IASC approved the activation of the Cluster System for Ukraine and a Humanitarian Coordinator was appointed in January. In February 2015 the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) was revised, based on a deterioration of the humanitarian situation. Recent reports indicate that the humanitarian situation continues to worsen and that conflict may soon intensify.

The Multi-­‐Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) provides an overview of needs in Eastern Ukraine, based on reports from households (HHs) and key informants (KIs). It is an initiative of the Ukraine NGO Forum to seek greater understanding of needs across the affected area. The support of ACAPS1 was requested the for this. The assessment covered the five eastern oblasts in an attempt to provide a more comprehensive overview of the humanitarian situation than was available. This would help identify the overall priorities and needs by using a consistent approach across all 5 oblasts so that findings could be compared. It did not focus on assessing only the areas known to be worst impacted by the crisis, rather it considered the entire area (including badly affected areas)2. The assessment uses three distinct areas and the target population in them as the basis for the analysis, and presents information based on key differences between them:

• IDPs living in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Zaparizhia, oblasts not affected by active fighting but host to a large number of IDPs.

• IDPs living in areas that remain under the control of the GoU in Donetsk and Luhansk.

• People living in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that are under the control of non-­‐government actors (both IDPs and people in their place or origin).
   

The number of new Ebola infections in Sierra Leone is declining, despite the outbreak continuing to claim lives. New cases have dropped to around 9-12 per week, according to recent WHO figures. There were over 500 cases per week at the height of the crisis around late November 2014.

The impact on the lives of the thousands of people directly affected by the disease has been devastating. It has caused substantial suffering to many others, leaving the population very vulnerable. 

No recent assessment has evaluated and compared the status of populations in areas with high, medium and low exposure to Ebola. In this report, we refer to low, medium or high exposure areas based on the proportion of Ebola cases up to January 2015, compared to the 2014 population projections for those areas. Low Ebola exposure areas are districts in which the proportion of EVD cases compared to the population is between 0.01% and 0.10%. Medium Ebola exposure districts are defined as districts in which the proportion ranges from 0.11% to 0.20%. High exposure districts are districts in which the proportion of EVD cases is between 0.21% and 0.52%.

 The Ebola Needs Analysis Project (ENAP) assessment was designed as a probability sample survey, conducted with 188 KIs from 59 chiefdoms and wards. The aim was to analyse the impact of the Ebola crisis from a multi-sectoral perspective. 

Import restrictions from the economic crisis that escalated in 2014 are resulting in severe food shortages and escalating malnutrition rates. A recent assessment of 526 children in several states found GAM rates of 8.9% and SAM of 3.2%. Severe medicine shortages combined with poor hospital services facilitate the spread of diseases such as malaria and diphtheria. Maternal mortality increased by 65% between 2015 and 2016 according to some government data. Approximately one million children do not go to school due to insecurity, food shortages in schools, and teachers’ absenteeism. Protection concerns are widespread as Venezuela recorded increasing violence with one of the highest homicide rates in the world in 2016.

This traffic lights diagram is based on the result of multisectoral priortrisation tool developed by the Analysis Hub. The tool uses NPM site assessments Round 13 data from four sectors to priortise needs geographically, at majhee block level. The 45 indicators used are selected from the sectors to build up a composite index, and combined to make up Basic Needs Gap Index at majhee block level. Each indicators are evaluated for their inclusion in the priortrisation tool and selected according to the amount of variation it revealed. The Betti-Verma method is used to calculate the weight of each indicator and multiple deprivation tool is used to calculate the index in STATA. Additional explanation can be found in the Rohingya Influx Overview. Camps and sites are too large and diverse to be effective planning devices. The analysis for the Basic Need Gap Index was done at majhee block level because the majority of differences and variations in needs are between majhee blocks; and camp level analysis can hide the pockets of high need area.

A multitude of needs assessments have been conducted to capture impacts of the Ebola outbreak on affected communities, since March 2014. This paper reviews all of the assessments on Liberia and Sierra Leone made available to the Ebola Needs Analysis Project (ENAP), between December 2014 and 20 March 2015. Several assessments have been conducted at a regional level. This report focuses only on those conducted on a national level or lower, to allow for disaggregation of results. The review aims to inform the humanitarian response and future assessments, by identifying what information exists and where information gaps remain. 

In the complex environment of an epidemic, capacity to identify humanitarian needs is essential to inform and guide operations. Such capacity was challenged in the three countries most affected by the Ebola crisis, due mainly to problems of access and fear of the disease. 

This report gathers lessons identified from assessments of the humanitarian situation in West Africa during the later stages of the Ebola crisis, between November 2014 and April 2015. It is based on conversations with individuals from different organisations who conducted assessments, as well as on ACAPS experiences of assessments conducted in Sierra Leone and Liberia during the Ebola Needs Analysis Project (ENAP). 

The document provides a starting-point for organisations planning an assessment in this Ebola outbreak or in similar future situations. More general lessons, which have been covered in other publications, are repeated here because experience has indicated they need reinforcing. When considering these lessons, it is important to keep in mind that Liberia and Sierra Leone are developing countries whose public health systems were already weak pre-crisis.  

In November 2013, ACAPS supported a 'light' joint needs assessment in southwest Bangladesh, which was a consolidation of the waterlogging situation,  without field assessment, in order to promote a shared situational understanding. This report gathers data on reported needs form a sample of unions in Satkhira, Jessore, Khulna, and Bagerhat districts.

In 2014, the Joint Needs Assessment consolidation project prepared a series of pre-disaster secondary data reviews relating to particular natural disasters in Bangladesh. Each report covers the history and location of such disasters, their impact, response needs and capacity, lessons learned, and existing information gaps.

In 2014, the Joint Needs Assessment consolidation project prepared a series of pre-disaster secondary data reviews relating to particular natural disasters in Bangladesh. Each report covers the history and location of such disasters, their impact, response needs and capacity, lessons learned, and existing information gaps.

In 2014, the Joint Needs Assessment consolidation project prepared a series of pre-disaster secondary data reviews relating to particular natural disasters in Bangladesh. Each report covers the history and location of such disasters, their impact, response needs and capacity, lessons learned, and existing information gaps.

Heavy rains over 5-8 March caused flooding in the Southern region of Malawi. As of 10 March, at least 14 districts have been impacted, affecting approximately 468,650 people and displacing more than 31,700 people. At least 30 people have been killed and over 370 injured. Assessments are ongoing. On 8 March, the president declared a state of disaster in the areas affected by ongoing rain and flooding. Priority needs are shelter, WASH, food, livelihood and health assistance.

The Syria Needs Analysis Project (SNAP) started in December 2012, as a collaborative project between ACAPS and MapAction, aimed at bring together available information on humanitarian needs in the Syria crisis. At the time, information-sharing and publications on the humanitarian situation were extremely limited; in this context, SNAP’s initial goal was to help create a shared situational awareness among humanitarian actors, which in turn would contribute to a better-targeted and more needs-based response and improvements in the situation of crisis-affected populations. Over 2.5 years, SNAP has pursued these goals with a combination of independent information products, technical support and capacity building for humanitarian assessments. At the end of 2014, the project name was changed to Strategic Needs Analysis Project, to reflect the growing need for regional and whole-of-crisis analysis following the declaration of an L3 crisis in Iraq. The project closed at the end of June 2015.

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck Haiti on 6 October, and was followed by a magnitude 5.2 aftershock on 7 October and a magnitude 4.2 aftershock on 8 October. The departments affected by seismic activity were Artibonite, North and North-West.
So far, 17 people have died and at least 421 have been injured. The earthquakes destroyed 353 houses and damaged 7,430. An estimated 31,132 people were affected, although needs assessments are still being completed.
Considering the presence of UN agencies, the scale of pre-positioned aid and the reported response by the government as well as national and external relief actors, the need for international assistance and the impact are estimated at low to moderate.

74 people have died, over 39,500 displaced households (197,500 individuals) and over 330,000 people have been affected in 12 out of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions after over a week of torrential rains which began 26 July, linked to Cyclone Komen. The numbers of dead and affected continue to rise.

On 31 July, Rakhine state, Chin state, Sagaing region and Magway region were declared natural disaster zones.

Access has been severely restricted as floods and landslides have destroyed or damaged vital infrastructure.

The needs of those affected is yet to be assessed. Myanmar’s large displaced population, particularly the 130,000–140,000 Rohingya are particularly vulnerable

Since the publication of ACAPS Nigeria Floods Briefing Note on 21 September, river levels in most of the 12 affected states remain high due to flooding, which has affected 441,251 people, and displaced 141,369 people between late August and 24 September. A total of 108 deaths and 192 injuries have been reported as of late August. Rainfall is expected to continue for the next week. Rivers and Bayelsa states are estimated to be amongst the worst affected states where water levels continue to rise. Initial assessments indicate that 13,031 homes were damaged or destroyed across all affected states as of late August. Shelter, food, NFIs and medical assistance continue to be key needs for the affected population.

• According to the latest government figures, 1.4 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, including 750,000 targeted to address serious needs.
• At least 61,537 have been evacuated or displaced and are housed in 192 temporary shelters.
• So far, at least 1,000 people have been reported dead but the death toll is still expected to rise as the worst-affected areas are accessed.
• New cholera cases have already been reported, and enormous water infrastructure damage. Preliminary assessment indicates food shortages in worst-affected areas of Sud and Grand'Anse departments.
• Flooding, landslides, and debris have cut road access throughout affected areas, although a temporary bridge has replaced the collapsed La Digue bridge, enabling vehicle access to southern departments.

• The hurricane had a major negative impact on livelihoods, infrastructure and roads. Widespread damage to subsistence production increases the reliance of households on markets for basic needs. At the same time, essential movement of money and goods has been severely constrained, with some departments cut off from the capital, resulting in localised shortages of basic items and price increases.
• Households in Haiti were struggling to recover from several years of drought and the consequences of the 2010 earthquake. High levels of inflation, limited government support, and continued erosion of livelihood opportunities are some of the main challenges. 
• Markets in Haiti have shown to bounce back relatively quickly after sudden-onset events. Market-based responses, including cash-based programming, which also helps restore market functionality, have proven to be a feasible option to consider over in-kind assistance.  However, there is currently insufficient information available in the public domain to inform decisions on the most appropriate interventions beyond the immediate response phase. Rapid remote assessments on the functionality of markets, availability of goods and price data (food and non-food items) is required.