Upholding Humanitarian Standards: Considering Collectively Key Topics Related to Quality & Accountability Standards through the Project Life

Applying ethics & principles in emergencies:
Codes of Conduct, Complaints and Feedback Mechanisms, including PSEAH
“The humanitarian movement is a universal movement with a lot of disparity and diversity. To meet the challenges faced by local actors on the ground, organisations must adopt a simple, up-to-date, communicative code of conduct based on universal principles. Furthermore, organisations must have a mechanism in place to ensure that the code of conduct is followed at all levels. There must be complaints procedures in place for this to happen. The method for collecting complaints must be responsive, transparent, protective, independent and impartial.”
Philippe Dureau, Dorcas

Localisation and equitable partnerships through the Nexus: Can we avoid sub-contracting only?
“Localisation should not be generalised; we need to be very context specific and understand the challenges and successes that the local actors are reaching every day. In addition, localisation is not only limited to the emergency context, but also applies during the humanitarian and the longer term, through the ‘Nexus’. Moreover, localisation is a shared responsibility between the local actors and the donor agencies. Therefore, it is important for both parties to build strong and meaningful partnerships, be active in collective advocacy and promote unified coalition.”
Eman Ismail, ICVA MENA

Do No Harm & Do Some Good: The importance of context analysis from upfront!
“Commitment 3 of CHS says Humanitarian response strengthens local capacities and avoids negative effects. Do No Harm is about unintended negative effects of our work on community and conflict dynamics. It is also about how we approach the people we work with in terms of respect, fairness, accountability and transparency. It is crucial to know the dynamics of the communities and region we are working in, and other context details. It can be difficult to get this kind of information but we need to look beyond the needs assessments that we are doing. We need to know much more about the environment, who else is living there and who are the different stakeholders involved. Staff and partners are often good sources of information.”
Corita Corbijn, ZOA

Capacity Building and Learning – Strategies
“In order for capacity building and learning initiatives to make a difference, both at institutional and individual level, we need to provide a space for discussion and have the right balance between knowledge, skills, and attitude. The CHS is a learning journey, for organisations involved, whether international or national, as well as for the CHS Alliance. We need to nurture mutual learning space, and tend toward longer learning journeys, linking theory and practice. We see great opportunity and value into this learning series involving Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and this is certainly one we can all learn from.”
Geneviève Cyvoct, CHS Alliance

The CHS verification scheme: Dreaming of a joint self-assessment led locally?
“The CHS verification is a way forward on how we can put the standards into practice. The verification is a structured and systematic process that determines how closely an organisation’s work adheres to the CHS. The verification method ensures that processes, rules, and policies are in place at the organisational level, guaranteeing that interventions are of high quality and accountable. It also ensures that such policies are followed in projects and activities on the ground. Finally, it verifies that quality and accountability measures are included in collaborative practises and tools.”
Bonaventure Sokpoh, CHS Alliance

Invaluable community engagement!
“In principle everyone agrees to involve and engage communities in the humanitarian work but when it comes to practice each context brings us new challenges. We can perform better if we know & benefit from existing tools & contextualise them based on the situation.  For example, the CHS Commitment 4 that relates to community engagement puts focus on meaningful participation. It’s requirements can guide us to function responsibly. On top of this, humanitarian practitioners must prioritise the safety & dignity of communities participating in the interventions. Staff should be considerate of what, when & how to communicate with communities. We, at ACT Alliance, are CHS certified, and each audit brings us a new perspective from communities to further improve. The CHS verification is an independent process that allows organisations to know how communities feel about our work.”
Rizwan Iqbal, ACT Alliance