Rapid village assessment under way for quake-hit north

Armed with a simple questionnaire, a UN agency is aiming to establish a database of information on the needs of thousands of villages scattered throughout quake-affected northern Pakistan. “The idea behind this is to gain as quickly as possible a comprehensive picture of what conditions and needs are at the village level,” said Lynette Larsen, manager of the UN Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) in the Pakistan capital Islamabad. Thousands of villages and hamlets have been affected by the 8 October quake in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, many of which have yet to receive any assistance; some don’t even appear on official maps. Developed by the HIC with the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, and used most recently in Kosovo and Iraq, the forms will help direct assistance to the most needy. “Right now we only have half the picture,” Larsen said. “By having this information, we can better target our response.” The simple assessment forms can be completed within minutes, providing a snapshot of shelter, education, health, water and sanitation needs at the village level. “It’s not really designed for cities. It’s about smaller communities,” Larsen said. “It is designed to be completed very quickly by talking to someone - preferably a figure of authority, community leader or village elder - to establish a picture what is going on in the village, how many people there are and what their needs are.” Agencies or individuals visiting villages are being asked to take the forms with them and return them when completed for entry into the database. “We had a group of trekkers that volunteered. They’re going to use the forms as well,” Larsen said. “You just need to be able to ask questions and tick off the boxes.” The questionnaires were not meant to replace the more detailed assessments many agencies will be making in planning their own projects, but rather, to supplement them, thereby creating a database everyone can access. Such a database will provide agencies with an important baseline to measure their success in getting aid to where it was most needed. “We know the need is huge but eventually we have to get better at making sure the response is matching the need and the only way of doing that is having both sides of the picture,” Larsen said.