Chapter Four - HAP International

The 2008 Humanitarian Accountability Report
20. The Women’s Refugee Commission
pilot projects while also supporting an impact evaluation focusing on reducing risk to gender-based violence through economic empowerment. The Women’s
Refugee Commission also reviewed whether its advocacy on the transfer of children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement has been effective.
4. Addressing Complaints (Principle 6)
The organisation has yet to institute a Complaints Handling Procedure, although contact information is available on fact sheets developed for beneficiary
populations, translated as needed in local languages.
Case Study Example: Good practice in humanitarian accountability and quality management – Summary version
Example of obtaining input on reproductive health from beneficiary populations
Mary (not her real name) has four children, aged 14, 12, 7 and 4. She lives with her husband and children in a makeshift hut that her husband built near her
former home that was burned during the post-election violence. Mary is nine months pregnant. She does not know where she will deliver her child. She is
anxious because she is unsure of what to do if she develops a complication. Her family does not have the money to take her to a health facility or pay for
medical care so, if she can have a normal delivery, she will give birth at home. She will most likely deliver by herself, since there is no midwife in the
community and the only traditional birth attendant in the area had fled with the violence. Mary was not aware of a clean delivery package that could help her
give birth in a semi-clean environment at home. Even while she was living in the camp, she had not come across such a package.
Plans with regard to: undertaking a baseline analysis, a certification audit, or mid term certification review
A baseline analysis was requested from HAP in 2008, planned for January 2009
21. World Vision International
Introductory comments: Over the course of 2008, there have been significant changes at field and institutional levels. At the field level, progress in World
Vision’s Food Programming and Management Group (FPMG) performance on accountability was particularly strong, with an initial focus on pursuing
certification evolving into a focus on intensive training and establishment of complaints and response mechanisms as the understanding of accountability
grew. This culminated in the senior leadership of FPMG deciding that community complaints mechanisms would be part of the “go or no go” decision for all
food projects by 2010. This will cover approximately 35 countries and effectively make complaints handling a normal expectation in World Vision’s
humanitarian work. FPMG and H-Account have become significant partners with HAP at field level in an arrangement that has improved WV’s work,
generated momentum for change and provided valuable learning for both parties. From early 2008, H-Account established the capacity to deploy to
emergencies with the hiring of a second full time staff member. In response to Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, H-Account was able to deploy to a large
emergency response as part of the first wave. On an institutional level, the Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs branch of World Vision formed the Quality
Assurance team to provide a formal place for Accountability where approaches can be combined with Design, Monitoring and Evaluation, Learning and
Capacity Building. Most new initiatives to achieve organisational change now include elements of quality such as accountability to beneficiaries. Finally,
WVI has established a Global Accountability Team to tackle beneficiary accountability issues across all programming (including development) and pursue
wider accountability issues that H-Account needs to consider but has lacked the mandate to do so.
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