The mapping report divides the relief project cycle into stages:

1. Initial assessment, decision to respond and programme design;
2. Fundraising and allocation of funding;
3. Establishment or scale-up of local offices and/or agreements with local partners;
4. Procurement and logistics;
5. Targeting and registration of beneficiaries
6. Implementation and distribution;
7. Project monitoring, reporting, evaluation and closure.
8. Finance, personnel and administration throughout the project cycle.

Special risks specific to shelter, food aid, health care, water and sanitation, and internally displaced people /refugees programmes are also highlighted.

This is a simplified portrayal of the relief process. In reality, its activities are rarely sequential, overlapping and occurring in parallel. Although the mapping report assumes a project with a clear beginning and end, relief efforts may be prolonged and repeated. There is no ‘typical’ humanitarian emergency; each crisis varies according to the type of emergency, the local context and people and organisations involved. This general framework would need to be adapted to each situation.

1. Initial assessment, decision to respond and programme design:

• Bribery of those conducting the assessment to inflate needs and/or to favour specific groups
• Coercion to influence the shape, size or location of programme
• Influencing decision-makers to inflate needs and/or to favour specific social groups

2. Fundraising and allocation of funding:

• Bogus NGOs are set up internationally or locally to raise funds from the public
• Double funding: allocating the same overhead expenditure to two or more projects

3. Scale-up of local offices/working with partners:

• Bribes demanded for expediting permits, licenses, leases, essential public services (for example: communications, electricity), for local offices.
• Agency staff invent partners or demand kickbacks
• Partners use opportunities provided by new funds to cover deficits on other projects

4. Procurement and logistics:

• Inclusion in a tender list as a result of a bribe
• Bribes to accept sub-standard relief goods
• Unauthorised use of agency vehicles or other modes of transport for private gain. For example: transporting commercial goods, taxi services or social purposes.

5. Targeting and registration:

• Illegitimate inclusion on distribution lists
• Authorities, elites or staff give preference to individuals or groups because of bias, social obligations or coercion
• Powerful individuals within the community manipulate the beneficiary lists

6. Implementation and distribution:

• Those involved in the distribution divert assistance for private gain
• Extortion of beneficiaries
• ‘Taxation’ of relief goods

7. Monitoring, reporting, evaluation and project closure:

• False or exaggerated reporting by project managers
• Favourable reports that hide financial problems

8. Finance, Administration and Personnel:

• Staff divert funds being paid to the agency or partner
• Coercion to select key people for jobs
• Payroll fraud, for example: non-existant employees, employees that have resigned, payroll salary higher than authorised salary

Sector-Specific Risks