Chapter Four - HAP International

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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 119 144
THE 2008 HUMANITARIAN ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT 20. The Women’s Refugee Commission including United Nations agencies, governments, donors, nongovernmental organisations and others. Over the past year, staff have heard the concerns of some 1,000 displaced persons: • In Ethiopia and Thailand, through its fuel and firewood initiative, staff met with 100 camp leaders and conducted FGDs with 150 displaced participants and interviews with 13 displaced persons. • Staff in the detention and asylum programme met with 18 children in the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities. • During its reproductive health assessment following the post-election violence in Kenya, the team met with 139 displaced men, women and adolescents. • In the livelihoods programme, staff met with 435 people in Egypt, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Nepal. • Staff from the youth programme met with approximately 100 youth on the Thai-Burma border. • While in Sierra Leone, staff and board members met with 34 young women and men. To enhance participation, the Women’s Refugee Commission develops beneficiary versions of its field visit reports and translates them into the local languages as needed. Over the past year, staff developed a beneficiary report on the Kenya reproductive health assessment, translated it into Kiswahili and disseminated 200 copies to participants. A beneficiary report was also developed, translated into Krio and distributed to 94 beneficiaries in Sierra Leone. To offer opportunities for displaced persons to become advocates and activists themselves, the Women’s Refugee Commission supported three refugees from Liberia, Chechnya and Sri Lanka to present at the annual Voices of Courage Awards luncheon in May 2008, while several other refugees were supported to attend the event. The Women’s Refugee Commission sponsored a returnee from Liberia and a displaced woman from northern Uganda to present the Youth Advisory Video at the June 2008 Reproductive Health in Emergencies Conference in Uganda. In addition, the Women’s Refugee Commission supported 16 local NGOs in two networks on the Thai-Burma border that provide adolescent reproductive health training and prevention services. As part of the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Displaced Youth Initiative, the organisation has established a Youth Advisory Group comprising 15 young women and men from conflict-affected countries—ranging from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka to Uganda to Burma. The group’s purpose is to help guide and inform the overall initiative, including identifying needs and gaps in services for displaced young people and participating in project research and advocacy. It was officially launched in January 2008. In the first year, the Women’s Refugee Commission has been able to provide various training and advocacy opportunities for the group, including supporting two members to participate in the Global Campaign for Education’s Action Week in Washington, DC; supported another member to attend the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) capacity building workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia; and began planning for a group meeting in Turkey in April 2009 to coincide with the INEE’s Global Consultation, where advisors will be presenting on various panels. 3. Monitoring and Evaluation (Principle 5) To improve capacity to monitor and evaluate research recommendations, the Women’s Refugee Commission adopted a five-country (Jordan, Liberia, northern Uganda, Sudan, Thai-Burma border) strategy in 2008. Over the past year, the Women’s Refugee Commission has followed up on recommendations, specifically monitoring developments on reproductive health coordination and the provision of reproductive health services in northern Uganda, Kenya and Jordan. In addition, the Women’s Refugee Commission established a template for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of its livelihoods 120 145
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Chapter Four - HAP International

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