1. Background
a. In 2012, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) agreed to develop and adopt Assessment and Monitoring Framework for Pakistan. Assessment Working Group (AWG), co-chaired by NDMA and OCHA, was mandated to develop and propose guidelines for this purpose. Subsequently, AWG in consultation with NDMA, Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs), relevant government institutions, clusters and UN agencies drafted frame-work, tools and methodology for coordinated assessments.
b. Assessment and Monitoring Framework covers complete cycle of assessments, starting from the initial Situation Overview to the Monitoring and Evaluations by the end of early recovery. The Multi-Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) is the first step of the Assessment and Monitoring Framework, and was designed to identify strategic humanitarian priorities after the onset of natural disasters or complex emergencies.
c. MIRA has been conducted in Pakistan twice after the floods of 2012 and 2014. MIRA- 2014 lessons learnt exercise highlighted two major gray areas in implementation including unavailability of trained enumerators at the time of assessment and lack of validation mechanism. Subsequently, rounds of revisions were conducted to keep MIRA up-to-date and relevant in emerging situations. The Guidelines for MIRA have been developed by NDMA with technical support of UNOCHA to provide operational guiding principles on roll-out and implementation of MIRA. Approach adopted for these Guidelines is inclusive, comprehensive, decentralized and focused on institutionalization of initiatives. MIRA Methodology Document has been exclusively consulted for the development of these Guidelines.
