op 18 front pages-converted - The Watson Institute for International ...

ferently. The interface between the U.N.’s humanitarian and
military entities as well as with other humanitarian actors,
including intergovernmental organizations, the ICRC, and
NGOs, also should be addressed.
Fifth, an improved institutional framework would specify clear
expectations about performance and mechanisms of accountability.
The international community bears responsibility for the operational
and human implications of the strategies chosen.
Practitioners are also responsible not only to those who provide
resources but also to those in need of their effective use.
Accountability ranges beyond the fiscal to the programmatic.
Accountability is more difficult to assure in situations of
armed conflict, where civilian structures are frequently weak
and access by monitoring personnel limited. In precisely these
circumstances, however, accountability is no doubt even more
necessary—if for no other reason than to limit how much
outside assistance fuels the conflicts. At the same time, unrealistic
demands for accountability may work against responsive
and decisive action.
We recommend greater accountability to the victims of
conflict. U.N. practitioners should be encouraged to include
local institutions and groups in setting priorities. The Sanctions
Committee review process also should be made more
transparent, with sessions no longer held behind closed doors.
In order to help develop the ground rules for a more
comprehensive approach to accountability, we recommend
creation of a private watchdog organization. This entity could
monitor from an independent and informed vantage point the
activities of the various humanitarian organizations around
the world.
The Longer Term Future
Looking to matters requiring even further discussion and
time to implement, we single out for special attention an issue
that emerges from the experience in the former Yugoslavia,
corroborated in other peacekeeping operations under way in
Somalia and Angola.
That issue concerns the connections between humanitarian
action and what the U.N. Secretary-General has called An
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