A Stakeholder Approach to Crisis Evaluation

Abstract

Post-crisis management involves a number of activities designed to make sense of the crisis and to facilitate recovery processes. Evaluation is one of the indispensable elements of post-crisis management. There are various areas an organization can focus on in evaluation, depending on the nature of the crisis, the extent of the damage and its impact on stakeholders. Very often organization-centric evaluations tend to focus mainly on the organization’s crisis preparedness and response. This approach negates the fact that crises have many stakeholders, who also have interests, concerns and views on them. Adopting a stakeholder-centred approach will ensure that stakeholder voices and issues are properly included in the evaluation. In this approach stakeholders’ experiences and stories are solicited through active participation in the evaluation.