In some cases, the findings and determinations that are brought to the surface during a sanctions assessment do not make it into the written report of the endeavour, often as a result of document editing and time constraints. Therefore, any written assessment of the humanitarian implications of sanctions should include, at a minimum, the sections outlined below. This section listing can be used as a template by those responsible for undertaking such assessments:
Introduction: Background to current study | Decisions by the sanctioning authority (e.g. UN Security Council resolutions) relevant to current assessment | Brief description of timing of assessment mission to sanctioned region;
Procedure and methodology: Actual sequential procedure followed by investigators (e.g. literature review, interviews, field mission) | Overview of methodology used, along with the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology in the particular context | Main challenges in implementing methodology in the context of the current assessment;
Baseline and prior assessments: Assessment of humanitarian conditions (using indicators across multiple sectors) prior to sanctions | Results of prior assessments | Trends in humanitarian conditions at baseline;
Assessment of current conditions: Assessment of current conditions (point values and trends) across multiple sectors using humanitarian indicators | Description of data / information sources | Overview of techniques for original data collection (if applicable);
Results of causal modelling: How causal models were constructed to identify causes of humanitarian conditions | Identification of causal pathways;
Humanitarian implications of sanctions: The impact of sanctions on humanitarian conditions (separate from other causes) | Identification of other factors influencing humanitarian conditions (and their relative importance compared to sanctions);
Findings: Summary of main findings including concise statement of the humanitarian impacts of the sanctions measures on discrete humanitarian conditions.
