Danida, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
Following the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the international response. The findings were highly critical of nearly all the international actors. Ten years after the genocide the Ministry commissioned this assessment of the impact and influence of the evaluation.
It concludes that the evaluation contributed to increased accountability among humanitarian organizations and that it had important influences on several major donor policies. But, the evaluation’s main conclusion –that “humanitarian action cannot substitute for political action”—remains just as valid today.
Linda Melvern 