Chapter Four - HAP International

The 2008 Humanitarian Accountability Report
19. Tearfund UK
• Clarity
Tearfund’s Liberia team learned the importance of being clear in advance (though illustrations, more detailed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with
a community, etc) about what they would provide, so communities could hold them to account, and also specifying the role/input expected from the
community, so that a clear two-way relationship was established.
• Community literacy
Local languages were spoken not written, so printed public information had to be in English. In every community there were those who read English and
could translate for others, but the printed material was not sufficiently concise/pictorial to reach as many as possible. This is an area for future development:
notice board information should be developed in collaboration and trialled with different sectors of the community, ensuring the most vulnerable have access
to information.
• Further benefits of Beneficiary Accountability
When properly empowered, it was found that the community and its leadership helped to curb fraud, whether by staff or community members e.g. when a
community wrongly received snacks instead of meals during a workshop, or materials going missing from deliveries—detailed community MoUs and stock
ledgers brought in through beneficiary accountability helped to ensure that staff were better stewards of the resources entrusted to Tearfund for
communities, and that community leaders were also held accountable.
Plans with regard to: undertaking a baseline analysis, a certification audit, or mid term certification review
The mid-term monitoring audit is scheduled for December 2009
20. The Women’s Refugee Commission
1. Institutional Commitment (Principles 1, 2 & 7)
The Women’s Refugee Commission, formerly the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, continued to make progress on integrating
accountability guidance into its work on behalf of women, children and adolescents affected by armed conflict and persecution. Over the past year, the
organisation finalised a working draft of an accountability handbook that now includes a section on research methodologies and guidelines for conducting
focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews.
In mid-2008, the Women’s Refugee Commission decided to undertake a baseline analysis against the HAP Standard to further guide the organisation to
improve its accountability and quality management systems. In late 2008, staff worked with HAP to establish the terms of reference and to organise the
January 2009 baseline analysis. In preparation for the baseline analysis, the Women’s Refugee Commission identified and submitted documents specific to
HAP principles, benchmarks and other requirements.
2. Accountability in humanitarian action (Principles 3,4,6 & 7)
To ensure accountability to displaced populations, the Women’s Refugee Commission routinely includes the voices of displaced populations in its field
research. Staff document findings and advocate recommendations through reports, letters, meetings, presentations and media outlets, to target audiences
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