IRIN Evaluation Report - March 2003
by Graham Mytton & Sharon Rusu

IRIN Performance on Products and Services

85. Assessing IRIN's performance on products and services is a key indicator of subscriber satisfaction. Both the e-survey and interviews showed that the IRIN products or services used most by its subscribers are the daily stories on the four African regions and then the weekly summaries. This finding is supported by IRIN subscriber statistics that indicate that by September 2002, subscriber interest in the Africa service including Plus News was nearing 90%. ²⁴
86. IRIN subscribers have grown from 1000 in 1996 to 17,780 in 2002 with the years 1997, 1999 and 2001showing exponential growth as these years marked respectively: opening of IRIN West Africa, opening of IRIN-Horn and a new e-mail delivery system, dynamic website, and PlusNews. According to the e-survey most IRIN subscribers report regular use, with 94% having read IRIN within the previous week, 72% within the previous day. More than half of IRIN subscribers pass content on to others, considerably expanding IRIN's potential outreach.
87. Subscriber perceptions as to IRIN performance mirror the statistical performance indicated above. The majority, 85%, ranked IRIN's performance on products and services high in analytical capability, communications strategy, influence, knowledge transfer, levels of connection with key decision-makers and levels of credibility amongst key stakeholders. The radio project was another that received high acclamation by donors and NGOs. Those who ranked IRIN medium or low, were few and had only very minor complaints regarding timeliness or the lack of IRIN's content applicability to their work.
88. The e-survey indicated that the majority, 84% of IRIN subscribers, described IRIN as timely in its reporting frequency and coverage of issues. This statistic reflected the perception of those interviewed as well, with the exception of the media.

    IRIN's role is directly related to supporting OCHA's core function by providing a humanitarian information service to donors and others, especially those interested in the Great Lakes and West Africa. Senior Government Official, South Africa

    Those who found IRIN stories came late or all at once were mostly media professionals. In the view of some media users, IRIN's timeliness could be improved if it moved from a 5-to a 7 day a week schedule. The humanitarian community, on the other hand, had few complaints on IRIN's timeliness, save for those for whom poor communications links and lack of access to the Internet was still a barrier to access. For example, Save the Children, Nairobi, have very limited and slow access to the Internet.

    Institutional Role and Partnerships: IRIN support for OCHA's core functions

89. The majority of respondents (85%) gave IRIN a high ranking on its performance in establishing and sustaining institutional relationships. These were particularly positive in their views of IRIN's support for its first institutional links with OCHA and OCHA's core functions, especially information for coordination of emergency response and advocacy.
90. That IRIN played a central role in supporting OCHA's core function in the coordination of humanitarian emergency response was a view endorsed by the majority and summed up below by a prominent operational NGO:

    'IRIN serves OCHA best as a tool for coordination. Coordination is about informing decisions through the provision of timely and trustworthy information and analysis. Authority develops over time. To rally agencies, OCHA has a powerful means of communication to influence agency decisions. IRIN provides that means.' Norwegian Refugee Council, Geneva

91. IRIN has special ties with OCHA in the field and in Geneva and New York, especially with ReliefWeb. ²⁵ Accordingly, UN field personnel underlined how important IRIN is to their work as they found 'IRIN was good at identifying strategic issues, hence in assisting with emergencies by providing information and analysis on the various players and their views'. Another former field officer commented, that he used 'IRIN everyday in Bujumbura [and] could not have done his job without it, because IRIN contextualizes, which is the first level of in-depth analysis'.
92. At the same time, it was recognized that the usefulness of IRIN in the field was linked to access. As one humanitarian affairs officer noted, 'at first access in Eritrea was poor, and use of IRIN was also poor. But as access improved, the use of IRIN progressed exponentially'. IRIN is equally regarded as a primary source of information by UN field officers. A recent tribute to Pat Banks from the OCHA team in Eritrea supported the OCHA Regional Director's view that 'IRIN [is] the primary source of non-partisan humanitarian news in sub-Saharan countries and in Central Asia. . .[and for those] who work in the ever-changing environment of Central and East Africa, accurate information is essential and IRIN is a source upon which we can rely'.
93. Lewis Sida from Save the Children had this to say about IRIN's usefulness in the field:

    'While in the field, I used IRIN all the time. It gave me the sense of a regional roundup of information. Though I am now in headquarters, I feel there is still a lot of usage of IRIN in the field as I see it reflected in field reports. . . . I believe that IRIN is one of the most trustworthy of all information sources on African emergencies, especially West Africa where it is viewed as a major source of reliable reporting'.

94. Another NGO respondent from Oxfam, noted that IRIN reports have an additional value-added at the field level. By sustaining interest in the drought in Ethiopia, they prompt checks on programmes resulting in return reports to headquarters on conditions in the field. This circular information flow, field-IRIN-field, fills a gap that no other information source does at the moment.

    The value of IRIN is something that is not easily quantifiable. Government Official, South Africa

95. Equally, IRIN has supported OCHA and UN system advocacy campaigns ²⁶ through the production of web-based multi-media specials on issues such as the drought in Southern Africa, the internal conflict in Abidjan, HIV/AIDS and the Afghan peace process. Recently, IRIN supported both the OCHA IDP Unit and the Global IDP project in a recent Web Special on IDPs. Several respondents noted how IRIN handles advocacy well, as one put it 'by raising and sustaining interest in areas like HIVAids, while keeping humanitarian news stories coming on issues not covered by the traditional press' ²⁷ NGOs pointed out that IRIN's PlusNews service is a major contribution to advocacy and networking as it fills an information gap on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Most importantly, a significant proportion of its subscribers are local NGOs based in Africa who previously did not have access to this kind of Africa-specific information. Since the vast majority of these agencies republish this information, the potential impact of IRIN's networking effort is unlimited.
96. One West African donor described how IRIN influenced her decisions by raising issues and principles pertinent to humanitarian action and coordination on, for example, human security and IDPs, 'IRIN informs people like [her] who can then use this information to make decisions or recommendations on funding for humanitarian action'. Another example of IRIN's responsiveness to its institutional role was provided by a recent request by the government of Sweden. They asked IRIN to follow up on stories of the export of children from Somalia. The results are to be found in one of IRIN's latest Web Specials on 'Separated Somali Children'. In the view of many respondents, IRIN's Web Specials are a major contribution to humanitarian response as they 'are not just promotional, but provide the analysis the humanitarian community expect... not simply just what happened, but how events are interpreted'. A Geneva NGO respondent described IRIN as playing a major role in supporting OCHA's humanitarian coordination function by bringing more voices to the debate-UN, NGOs, donors and civil society'.
97. Though the majority view IRIN as fully supporting OCHA functions, some felt that IRIN was not fully appreciated for its contribution: 'It is apparent to some that IRIN is not fully appreciated within the UN system for its contribution to OCHA's coordination and advocacy role'. Further elaborating this view was another posited by OCHA Geneva, whose view was that although externally IRIN is viewed as doing a credible job, the problem is that internally IRIN is not as well accepted as it might be: 'IRIN is not as well-accepted internally as they go out of their way to be independent...

    On IRIN duplication with ReliefWeb IRIN is the source of original content on often difficult to find information on humanitarian issues which, in itself, is so compelling a fact that criticism of overlap seems almost superfluous. ReliefWeb Spokesperson

    [In order to counteract this impression,] they should provide more internal analysis for OCHA rather than reporting without connection to OCHA's mandate or internal policy needs'. In contrast, another view from OCHA Geneva noted how donors were very positive about IRIN and its provision of service. According to this source, a number of them even commented that IRIN 'sharpened their analysis'. ²⁸ A Department of Political Affairs respondent was, on the basis of her appreciation for IRIN's products and services, promoting IRIN to 'colleagues [who] were mostly unaware of IRIN's excellence for the field, especially compilations that come in text for offices where connectivity is a problem. Her view: 'IRIN needs better promotion inside the UN Secretariat'.

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