Protection Mainstreaming

It is recommended to include a Protection Mainstreaming process indicator in all actions providing MPC to affected populations. The purpose of this indicator is to facilitate the operationalisation of all four elements of protection mainstreaming and provide a way to measure the identification, implementation and monitoring of required corrective actions/measures. The overall goal is to have a positive impact on how the assistance is delivered during the action.

How to collect the data

• Protection Mainstreaming should be monitored regularly/throughout project implementation as its main aim is to identify corrective actions to be taken promptly to improve the quality of programming. The monitoring and evaluation process for protection mainstreaming should be embedded within existing frameworks.
• A baseline is not required but can be useful to identify trends. The first survey round should be conducted shortly after the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The sample population should be taken only from direct recipients of the assistance.
• DG ECHO developed a methodology to aggregate the data collected to ease the analysis and reporting, whi can be found in the link below (scroll to Protection Mainstreaming Indicator – technical guidance, and toolkit).

How to analyse the data

Being a process indicator, reporting the difference between the value at the beginning (baseline) and at the end of the action (target) is not the focus. Instead, you should regularly collect feedback from recipients on all four dimensions of protection mainstreaming throughout implementation, identify challenges and develop corrective actions/measures. It requires actors to view ‘failures’ and adaptation as expected and necessary aspects of problem-solving, with real-time learning in close collaboration with affected communities.

To be disaggregated by sex, age, and disability