Displaying items by tag: Accountability

The scale and scope of the humanitarian crisis in South Central Somalia challenges the humanitarian system’s capacity to deliver assistance. More than two decades of conflict, combined with cyclical, slow- and fast-onset disasters, have displaced millions of Somalis. In the absence of a central government, the few basic services available are mostly provided by humanitarian aid organisations (mainly through local staff and partners) and food crises are recurrent. Many of the lessons from this crisis can also be applied to other complex emergencies where the humanitarian response capacity has been overstretched, and where security and access constraints make it difficult…

Riccardo Polastro, Head of DARA’s Evaluations department, contributed the article Real Time Evaluations: contributing to system-wide learning and accountability to Humanitarian Exchange 52 on Accountability. Download the arabic translation below.

Shining the spotlight on humanitarian accountability again is healthy given this month’s New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States with its focus on transparency and ownership of aid, and Busan’s effective development cooperation agenda. The recent HPN debate on accountability left me reflecting on how much focus should be on accountability to - and as defined by - beneficiaries given the concerns about possible over-riding pressures for output-driven results-based aid in the UK, or in other countries. DfID’s humanitarian policy seems to try to balance accountability to taxpayers and to beneficiaries. It also contains a very clear commitment to strengthening…

This survey forms part of a review on the application of participatory approaches for disaster-affected communities in humanitarian initiatives, including good practices and recommendations for implementing partners and donors. It is being undertaken for the Directorate General ECHO – the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission.   We very much value your input and thank you for taking the time to contribute to this survey, which we estimate will take around ten to fifteen minutes to complete. Individual feedback will be treated anonymously whilst final outputs of the review will be publically available through the DG ECHO website and…

ALNAP's latest lessons paper identifies 17 key lessons for humanitarian agencies responding to droughts. Featured are topics such as early warning, targeting, working with government, food aid, water interventions and nutrition. The paper is especially aimed at people working in relief and recovery operations in drought-affected areas, those who have to decide if, when and how to intervene. It is also designed to assist agencies in designing evaluations and advocacy messages.

In 2003 HPN published an issue of the Humanitarian Exchange focused on Humanitarian Accountability to reflect on what was known at the time as the 'accountability revolution'. The issue looked at why accountability had become so important to the sector, which actors should be accountable, what they should be accountable for; and what actions were being taken. Nine years on, has our understanding of accountability changed? Is it still as important as it was? Where have gains been made and what are the challenges we face now and in the future? This event launches the 52nd edition of Humanitarian Exchange,…

The Collaborative for Development Assistance(CDA)'s new report on Feedback Mechanisms in International Assistance Organizations was motivated by the desire from many people in aid recipient societies to provide feedback—and to hear from aid agencies—about their efforts. In over 20 Listening Exercises conducted around the world, many people talked about how they were often asked to provide information during assessments, consultations, monitoring visits, or evaluations, but that they felt that they had not been genuinely heard, let alone received a response. As a consequence, they thought that opportunities were missed to share important feedback on the effects of aid efforts, agencies’…

Event report Wendy Fenton, Coordinator , Humanitarian Practice Network welcomed the speakers and attendees and introduced the speakers and discussant.  Amany Abouzeid, Human Security Policy Coordinator, ActionAid and co-author of the report then discussed the ideas behind the research. The research for the report followed the first cluster evaluations of the humanitarian assistance delivered after the conflict. ActionAid felt that these cluster evaluations were too mechanical and raised questions about the effectiveness of the humanitarian response. ActionAid felt there was a need to ask questions about humanitarian principles; perceptions of humanitarian assistance; and the global humanitarian project as a whole…

We did a great job in Haiti. Well, not bad. We – the international development community – kept thousands of people from dying. That’s a good thing to do, and it’s something that we’re pretty good at now. When was the last time that a lot of people died following (as opposed to during) a sudden disaster? Considering that Haiti was about as difficult an emergency as they get – a tsunami’s worth of death and destruction in one city, with most of the response capacity of Government, UN and NGOs right in the middle of the disaster – that’s…

The Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in humanitarian action (ALNAP) works with key humanitarian organisations and experts from across the humanitarian sector and is dedicated to improving humanitarian performance by producing tools and analysis to increase learning and accountability, ALNAP’S guide Evaluating Humanitarian Action using the OECD-DAC Criteria , by Tony Beck looks at how to strengthen evaluation of humanitarian assistance, and how to foster more effective use of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria. It draws on good-practice material including other guides, handbooks and manuals. If you would like more information on ALNAP, visit the website…