MEAL in Emergencies Glossary

Closed-ended questions

Have a limited set of possible answers. For example, you might have yes/no questions or question with a
rating scale.

Good Enough

“means choosing a simple solution rather than an elaborate one. ‘Good enough’ does not mean
second best: it means acknowledging that, in an emergency response, adopting a quick and simple
approach to impact measurement and accountability may be the only practical possibility.”

Reference: Emergency Capacity Building Project. The Good Enough Guide: Impact Measurement and
Accountability in Emergency Response. 2007.

Inputs

Are goods or services provided to meet project or response objectives.

Jerry Cans

Are plastic or metal containers that close with a cap and is usually used to
collect/store water. This is often distributed during emergencies. This is a
picture of a jerry can:

Monitoring Methods

Are the various ways in which we collect information to monitor the effectiveness of our response by
counting and checking on our work and resulting changes. The method is the way in which the data is
collected, such as a focus group discussion or a household interview.

NFI (NFI Kit)

are Non-Food Items; non-food items like buckets, blankets, etc. are usually distributed to crisis affected
people after an emergency to meet basic needs. Often these items are distributed as part of a set kit.

OFDA

Is the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and is responsible for leading and coordinating the US
Government’s response to disasters overseas. OFDA works with the international humanitarian
community to give vulnerable populations resource to build reliance and strengthen their own ability to
response to emergencies.

Open-ended questions

are designed to let the respondents answer however they choose.

Pre-coded answers

Refer to a fixed list of possible responses for a given question in a survey or other data collection too.
Pre-coded answers are used to collect quantitative data.

Protection

is the prevention of and response to abuse, exploitation, neglect, and violence against children, all
beneficiaries and other vulnerable adults

Protection Mainstreaming

is the process of incorporating protection principles and promoting meaningful access, safety, and
dignity in humanitarian aid

RTA

is a Regional Technical Advisor.

Sampling

is choosing who and how many people to talk to.

Serious Complaint

is a complaint that refers to a possible protection issue or case of abuse involving the exploitation of a
child or a vulnerable adult.

SitRep

is a Situation Report. A Situation Report is a short report intended to keep a wide audience of internal
and external stakeholders abreast of information related to a situation as it evolves over time.

Tools

are forms that guide the data collection process and where answers or observations for M&E data are
recorded

WASH

is an acronym for Water, Sanitation & Hygiene a standard sector in emergency response