Humanitarian energy is amazing, but knowledge management remains a challenge - Vikas Goyal

"Knowledge management of work on the ground remains a challenge. We badly require systems to institutionalise implemented projects and lessons for future reference." - Vikas Goyal, Health and hygiene promotion specialist, UNICEF, South Sudan

I worked on the tsunami reponse in both Sri Lanka and then in Indonesia working on hygiene promotion as part of the WASH team. My reflections include: 

• The amount of energy that the humanitarian sector can put in is amazing. Particularly for the first phase, there was no dearth of resources. 
• For the first time in the Asian region, a coordination / cluster system was set up. This approach is important and worked very well to manage the large influx of aid and the many organisations involved.
• There is a need to contexualise to areas and situations. Asia was a new area for many of the international NGOs and cuture / ways of working were very different to Africa. This took some getting used to for many. 
• The post-tsunami work has left a lot of capacity within the communities and some progress on risk reduction has been done. We are in a better position to deal with the risks today.