Topic 4: Humanitarian ethics and socially responsible engagement
Other key standards and codes
The other key standards and codes developed for various stakeholders within the humanitarian sector are:
PiA
People In Aid (PiA) improves organisational effectiveness within the humanitarian and development sector worldwide by advocating, supporting and recognising good practice in the management of people. Its largest network is Humanitarian HR, designed to improve the ability of participating organisations to find, select, prepare and retain personnel for emergency operations. PiA has also been instrumental in managing an ELRHA Scoping Study Professionalising the Humanitarian Sector. This Scoping Study includes the development of a number of Humanitarian Core Competencies, which you will examine in Topic 8.
People in Aid’s Code of Good Practice – http://www.peopleinaid.org |
HAP-I
HAP-I produces the HAP Standard in Accountability and Quality Management. This helps organisations that assist or act on behalf of people affected by or prone to disasters, conflict, poverty or other crises to design, implement, assess, improve and recognise accountable programs. It describes how to establish a commitment to accountability and the processes that will deliver quality programs for the people who experience them first hand. The HAP Standard is intended to be used either on its own or with other tools, frameworks and standards.
The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International (HAP-I) – see http://www.hapinternational.org |
ALNAP
ALNAP is the key global agency which focuses in on humanitarian evaluations. It was responsible, for example, for managing the Indian Ocean Tsunami evaluation Coalition (TEC) Reports; and currently handles the Haiti Learning and Accountability Portal. The latter provides a shared platform for an overview of ongoing and planned learning and accountability efforts by agencies operating in Haiti.
ALNAP Learning for Better Practice – http://www.www.alnap.org |
GHD
The GHD Initiative is an informal donor forum and network which facilitates collective advancement of GHD principles and good practices. It recognises that, by working together, donors can more effectively encourage and stimulate principled donor behaviour and, by extension, improved humanitarian action.
The Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) Initiative – see http://www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org |
At present only relatively few stakeholders within the humanitarian sector (i.e. primarily NGOs, the Red Cross, some UN agencies and donors) are either aware of, or are signatories of, these various standards and codes of conduct. Virtually all of the standards and codes of conduct in the humanitarian sector are voluntary rather than compulsory.
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Activity 4.3
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Familiarise yourself with the organisations above (PiA, HAP-I, ALNAP, GHD) and the relevant information concerning their standards and codes of conduct, and answer the following questions in less than 300 words:
- What points can you say each of the organisations examined in this Topic have in common?
- Would making some of these codes of conduct compulsory make them more effective; and, if so, how could such a change be introduced?
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