Improving Humanitarian Action: Standards, Verification and Compliance, 17 June 2013, London

Recently the humanitarian community has been discussing how to improve the delivery of quality and accountability to recipients of aid. Consultations have focused on

a) the use and relevance of current standards

b) the potential for a developing a compliance mechanism for verifying and benchmarking how well humanitarian agencies apply principles and standards of quality and accountability.

Some key questions are now emerging. Does the system need to change the way that standards are implemented? Is there potential for a single core standard for humanitarian action? Is the system ready for a new system of certification? If so, what will it look like? What are the certification criteria? Who will do the verifying?

ALNAP is pleased to announce an open meeting to air and explore these and similar questions. It presents a unique opportunity to learn first-hand about the outcomes and findings emerging from the Joint Standards Initiative, a collaborative effort by HAP, People in Aid and the Sphere Project to promote greater coherence between existing standards, and the Certification Review Project, an initiative sponsored by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) to explore the potential of a certification system to promote greater compliance of humanitarian principles and quality and accountability in humanitarian actions.

The meeting will also give participants the chance to preview the recommendations that will be presented at the upcoming Humanitarian Standards Forum in Geneva.

The event will be followed by refreshments and an opportunity for informal discussion.

Speakers

Matthew Carter – JSI Steering Group Chair (TBC)

Philip Tamminga – Coordinator of the SCHR Certification Review

Discussants

Jane Cocking – Humanitarian Director, Oxfam GB (TBC)

Hugo Slim – Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Ethics

Sandrine Tiller, MSF Programme Advisor on Humanitarian Issues.

Chair

John Mitchell – Director, ALNAP

If you would like to attend please email alnap@alnap.org with your name, organisation and job title or if you would like to view the event online, please register on the ODI website

This meeting will be held at ODI, 203 Blackfriars Road, London.