Towards a “culture of accountability”

The humanitarian system needs a “culture of accountability”. Photo: Patients wait in line at a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. © Phuong Tran/IRIN

By Aninia Nadig (*)

For many humanitarian actors, accountability to affected populations is no longer an abstract concept but an integral part of their policies and processes. Working in an accountable manner allows those organisations to learn from their exchanges with beneficiaries, ensuring that humanitarian action responds to actual needs.

However, it remains difficult – particularly in large-scale emergencies – to bring the benefits of accountable approaches beyond individual organisations to a country-wide strategic planning level, for example the Humanitarian Country Team.

To address this difficulty, the heads of the agencies and consortia that make up the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) have set up a Task Team charged with creating a “culture of accountability” across the whole humanitarian system.

According to the Task Team, creating this culture of accountability involves institutionalising accountability to affected populations (AAP) as well as protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) within each humanitarian organization, while at the same time strengthening cohesion, coordination and learning around accountability across the whole system.

As member of the AAP/PSEA Task Team, the Sphere Project office brings to the discussions a focus on what accountability means in practice, building on the fact that the Sphere technical standards have been written from an accountability perspective.

Sphere has contributed to developing the idea of an AAP/PSEA help desk, to help respond to the need for concrete guidance for making accountability a reality at country level. The AAP/PSEA help desk will consist of both a website with information that should respond to the most common questions of aid workers on AAP and PSEA, and a group of volunteer experts who will answer specific questions.

As the AAP/PSEA Task Team enters its last year of work, the Sphere office intends to contribute to the process of setting up the AAP/PSEA help desk, which is led by the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP). The help desk should be operational in 2015.

The Sphere office will also actively raise awareness of accountability to affected populations among national NGOs and help bring them into the broader AAP discussion, something that will profit not only them but also the international humanitarian community.

Sphere practitioners, focal points and champions are invited to share their views and input regarding AAP with the Sphere Project office. They are also welcome to join the email group established by the AAP/PSEA Task Team by writing to AAP/PSEA-TT@unhcr.org

(*) Aninia Nadig is responsible for Advocacy and Networking Management at the Sphere Project office.