The rapid expansion of the ‘relief industry’ over recent years has brought with it new pressures - political and financial - to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of aid. It has also brought demands for improved accountability to both beneficiaries and donors.

Responding to the challenge of regulation, in 1994 the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief was launched.

However, while the Code of Conduct lays out concepts and principles, it does not specifically address the question of support for the people actually doing the work. What skills, abilities and training are needed? Where do good aid workers come from, and how are they selected, managed and supported?

It is clear, but not often stated, that the demands of work in a humanitarian context require an unusual combination of human abilities. Yet the issue of human resources has remained remarkably low on the policy agenda.

The findings and recommendations of the study place human resource management centre-stage in the debate about the quality and effectiveness of aid programmes. Commissioned by four agencies centrally involved in expatriate recruitment and the Overseas Development Administration, it shows that weaknesses remain endemic in the recruitment and management of expatriate staff.

The reports two key recommendations - for a code of good practice in the recruitment and management of staff and the creation of a professional body for relief and development - sought to complement and strengthen the Code of Conduct.

It is recognised that the process of defining mechanisms for regulating professional standards of personnel and employers is an iterative one and feedback on this paper and the issues it raises is therefore particularly welcome.

Since publication of the report in 1995, the key recommendations have been taken forward by the Interagency Coordinator (IAC), appointed in early 1996. Supported by a Steering Committee of 11 agencies, the IAC undertook to draw up a Code of Best Practice in the Management and Support of Aid Personnel in February 1997.