The road to improved humanitarian accountability
December 2008
UN Refugee Agency UNHCR’s 59th Executive Committee met in Geneva from 6 to 10 October to review and approve the agency's programmes and budgets and to advise on protection matters.
The UK’s Under-secretary of State for International Development, Gareth Thomas, outlined five key elements essential for improving the international humanitarian response: stronger in-country leadership; more and better funding; better co-ordination; greater accountability; and sustained political commitment. Expanding on accountability, Mr Thomas said: ‘An effective response requires people to be held to account for delivery. It is vital that we have the tools in place to tell us whether the assistance we are providing is making a difference on the ground. Agencies urgently need to put in place standardised monitoring arrangements. And where accountability mechanisms already exist – such as the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International – we must use them more systematically.’
Nicholas Stockton, executive director of HAP International, told delegates at Horwarth Clark Whitehill’s INGO Conference later that month on 30 October that it was encouraging to hear Government support for accountability and programme effectiveness for improving the lives of disaster survivors. However, in his view, there was still a long way to go before wider adoption of accountability standards such as HAP’s standard in human accountability and quality management. ‘There are too many in our business that still think that accountability is a nice ethical add-on that can, and indeed should be, dispensed with in the heat of a major humanitarian emergency.’ The issue of exploitation of children by aid workers has already been raised in Save the Children’s report ‘No one to Turn to’ in May 2008.
Stockton outlined what was involved in seeking HAP certification and suggested how NGOs could go about preparing their own humanitarian accountability framework as part of a quality improvement journey. ‘The essential trick,’ he said, ‘is to start with a modest statement of commitments which the agency is confident it can deliver and report on. Put in another way, never make promises you cannot be sure you are keeping.’
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