People in Aid

The People in Aid Code of Best Practice in the Management and Support of Aid Personnel was published in February 1997: eleven NGOs have since begun a three-year pilot implementation process.

The pilot group comprises disaster and development NGOs with headquarters in Britain and Ireland. Pilot agencies include the British Red Cross, CONCERN, Oxfam, Save the Children and Tear Fund. Their work, and that of others working to Code principles, is acknowledged by DFID, UK, which routinely requires applicants for emergency funding to state whether they apply Code principles to their field programme management.

Three workshops were held in 1997-98: Starting Points, with staff of the Institute of Development Policy Management (IDPM), Manchester; Health, Safety and Field Personnel with Inter-Health and travel health lecturer, Karen Howell; and Auditing the People in Aid Code with the New Economics Foundation. People in Aid is now adapting the principles and methodology of Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting (SEAAR), or social audit, to enable pilot agencies to monitor and improve their performance against Code indicators.

Interest in the Code goes beyond the work of UK- and Irish-based agencies. European NGOs at a conference in Dublin last year acknowledged its relevance for their work. ECHO’s forthcoming paper on personnel security is expected to endorse the Code’s potential for the protection of field staff. The European Partnership of Relief Organisations has advocated its use by NGOs partnering UN agencies. DFID now has funded translation and wider dissemination of the Code which will shortly be reprinted in English, French and Spanish.

For further details on the People in Aid Code of Best Practice in the Management and Support of Aid Personnel, please contact:

Sara Davidson
C/o BRCS
9 Grosvenor Crescent
London
SW1X 7EJ
UK
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)171 235 0895