Chapter Four - HAP International

THE 2008 HUMANITARIAN ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT
3. CARE International
Introductory comments: CARE’s efforts in this area during 2008 were mainly focused around testing and finalizing our humanitarian accountability
framework (HAF). The HAF has been designed to prioritise and organise existing internal and international standards (including the HAP Standard),
principles, and codes into a user-friendly framework to help CARE staff improve accountability towards our stakeholders, notably communities affected by
disasters. CARE’s HAF is made up of three components; 8 benchmarks, a performance measurement system with 5 indicator sets and a compliance
system which together provide a common point of reference for CARE managers and staff to assess whether CARE humanitarian interventions fulfil our
stated commitments to quality and accountability. Independent studies and reviews conducted during 2008, including the SCHR Peer Review on
Humanitarian Accountability and external evaluations in Bangladesh and Myanmar, have found that application of the benchmarks in the HAF with technical
support from CARE’s Standing Team of quality and accountability specialists along with HAP and Sphere field staff (where deployed) have improved the
quality of CARE’s response and has usually helped to reinforce the respect of external stakeholders, including disaster-affected communities, towards
CARE.
Key goal for 2008 Achievements / challenges / lessons learned 2009 objectives
1. Institutional Commitment (Principles 1, 2 & 7)
Develop CARE’s draft HAF to a point where it
can start to be rolled out across the institution.
A SCHR Peer Review conducted together with Save
the Children and ICRC found support for the HAF
amongst the membership and recommended that
CARE consider applying many of these approaches
to non-emergency contexts.
Rollout and pilot the HAF, which has been
endorsed by CARE’s leadership.
2. Accountability in humanitarian action (Principles 3,4,6 & 7)
Establish humanitarian accountability systems in
all major emergencies based on CARE’s HAF
with support from the Standing Team and, where
deployed, HAP and Sphere staff.
Field tests during emergency responses in
Bangladesh, Myanmar and Haiti largely endorsed
the HAF, though there was a request for further
simplification/clarification of the framework.
However, staff continued to face challenges in
implementing the HAF both due to time pressures
during the early phase of an emergency response in
addition to coping with an operating environment
where they need to report to multiple donors using
competing reporting frameworks.
Promote more systematic application of the
HAF in emergency responses (not only major
emergencies) by, among other things,
increasing CARE’s Standing Team of quality
and accountability specialists to provide more
hands-on support to field staff when preparing
for, responding to and learning from emergency
responses.
3. Monitoring and Evaluation (Principle 5)
CARE’s HAF will provide a common point of
reference for CARE managers and staff charged
CARE is now systematically conducting After Action
Reviews (AARs) for most emergency responses and,
Improve understanding of how the use of
different compliance approaches can most
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