The Core Humanitarian Standard is being tested by 60 organisations around the world. Meanwhile, individual humanitarian workers have the possibility of sharing their feedback on the standard until 12 September.
In a sector characterised by high staff turnover, rapid deployments, steep learning curves and the need to collaborate with multiple actors, humanitarian standards are meant to enable those carrying out a response to deliver their best work and to be accountable to the communities they serve.
In this context, the purpose of the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) is to contribute to a better still humanitarian response. As a single core humanitarian standard, which should be simple and easy to use, the CHS aims to benefit the whole sector by increasing the consistency in the application of sectoral standards.
The CHS consists of a framework through which organisations commit to quality operational approaches and ways of working. It outlines policies, processes, procedures and practices needed in order to be accountable to crisis-affected communities. Adoption is voluntary and open to any organisation to use. The second version of the CHS is now available for testing and consultation.
Testing the CHS across the world
The 60 organisations currently involved in testing the CHS include international humanitarian NGOs like CARE, Caritas, Oxfam, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision, to name but those among them that are on the Sphere Board, as well as national or regional actors like Church World Service - Pakistan/Afghanistan and Sphere India.
The testing phase of consultation on the second CHS draft is now at the halfway mark. About half of the testers are involved in "guided testing," a modality that looks at the CHS as a tool to improve humanitarian action at programme level in the field. The other half carry out "self-assessment testing," which, in addition to the field level, also considers how the CHS can improve humanitarian action at headquarters.
"We are hopeful that findings from the different testing modalities will help improve the CHS," says Paula Gil Baizan, consultant and CHS process facilitator. "We also look forward to finding out whether there have been any changes in the tester organisations' understanding of the CHS throughout the process, and if they have made any improvements to the way they operate as a result of the testing experience," adds Paula.
Lessons learned during the testing will be available on the CHS website in October.
Send your personal feedback in by 12 September!
The second phase of the CHS consultation also offers individual humanitarian workers the possibility of contributing to the improvement of the standard.
Everyone involved in humanitarian response or affected by a disaster or conflict is encouraged to share their views on the CHS by 12 September 2014 (at midnight, Central European Time).
To do so, please download the CHS feedback form in Arabic, English, French or Spanish and comment directly on the text, structure and terminology used by the standard.
Click on the relevant link above to download the feedback form (which includes the actual text of the CHS) in your preferred language. To fill these forms out, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free here. We suggest you download the file to your personal computer, fill it in offline and then send it back using the Submit Form buttons located in the file.
For additional information please visit: CoreHumanitarianStandard.org
More on the involvement of the Sphere Project in the CHS process.