The Humanitarian Accountability Partnership based in Geneva today announced a 'standard' that could strengthen accountability to millions of disaster victims worldwide.

HAP’s seventeen members are gathered to celebrate the first awards of the HAP 2007 Certificate in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management to two members of the Partnership; the Danish Refugee Council and OFADEC.  Several other HAP Members were expected to seek HAP Certification during 2007 and 2008.

“We are proud to be among the first to receive the HAP Certificate,” said Andreas Kamm, Secretary-General of the Danish Refugee Council Being. “Focussing on accountability to our beneficiaries not only ensures that we provide the best aid here and now, it keeps us on our toes in our efforts to learn from our faults and thus learn to work even better.”

"All humanitarian agencies can measure up to the Standard" said Denis Caillaux, Chair of HAP and Secretary-General of CARE International. "HAP Certification assures accountability through a quality management system that is simple, affordable and effective, and suitable for large and small agencies alike."

In total, the members of HAP manage hundreds of programmes designed to help people survive in places like Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Haiti, Colombia or Chechnya. They also help people cope with natural disasters like the Asian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake.

Humanitarians widely accepted the need to be accountable to beneficiaries after a critical evaluation of the response to the Rwanda emergency in 1994, and made genuine efforts to improve their work. Yet ten years on humanitarian agencies again faced criticism for mixed performances in response to the tsunami.

Recent evidence suggests confidence in relief agencies may decline, even though they continue to deliver excellent life-saving aid to people in need. Aid agencies are increasingly under scrutiny to demonstrate professionalism from the media, donors, governments, and populations they seek to assist.  The HAP quality assurance certification scheme promises a way to rebuild confidence in humanitarian agencies.      

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