Quality and Accountability

‘Quality is … about learning what you are doing well and doing it better. It also means finding out what you may need to change to make sure you meet the needs of your service users.’ (Charities Evaluation Services)

‘Accountability describes the ways in which organisations and projects involve different groups in making decisions, managing activities, and judging and challenging results.’ ( Emergency Capacity Building Project, (2007), Impact Measurement and Accountability in Emergencies: the Good Enough Guide, Oxfam Publishing)


The INEE Minimum Standards and Quality and Accountability (Q&A)

The INEE Minimum Standards are the quality and accountability reference framework for the education sector in emergencies, chronic crises, and early reconstruction. They address quality concerns by providing guidance and good practices on ensuring access to quality, safe, and relevant education for all children, which is a right even in emergencies. They address accountability concerns by representing a common framework for humanitarian action, and by providing guidance on community participation, analysis and inter-agency coordination. As such, they are a key tool for the IASC Education Cluster and all humanitarian and governmental organizations implementing education programs in emergencies and post-crisis recovery settings. To read more about the INEE Minimum Standards as a key tool for quality and accountability, please see the panel discussion paper: Can global standards be practical and flexible? Lessons learnt from the INEE Minimum Standards application and analysis processes by Jennifer Hofmann, January 2009.

INEE and the Sphere Project signed a companionship agreement in October 2008. The Sphere/INEE Companionship is a partnership to promote quality and accountability in humanitarian response, whereby Sphere acknowledges the quality of the INEE Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction and of the broad consultative process that led to their development.  As such, the Sphere Project recommends that the INEE Minimum Standards be used as companion and complementing standards to the Sphere Handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. To read more about the Sphere/INEE Companionship, click here.

Quality and Accountability Initiatives

Below is a list of eight Quality and Accountability Initiatives in the humanitarian sector highlighted in “Taking the Initiative. Exploring quality and accountability in the humanitarian sector: an introduction to eight initiatives” by the Sphere Project in July 2009. The list is intended as a first aid to understanding the work of the diverse institutions and groups that have collectively termed themselves the ‘Quality and Accountability Initiatives.’ 

A set of modulable training materials will also be produced, that can be used in INEE and Sphere trainings to demonstrate how the palette of Q&A tools can enhance humanitarian assistance.

  1. The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) 2000
  2. The Sphere Project 1997
  3. People In Aid 1995
  4. The Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP) 1997
  5. Quality COMPAS 1999
  6. Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) 2003
  7. Synergie Qualité 2003
  8. The Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB) 2005


What do the Quality and Accountability Initiatives have in common?

Though they have different starting points and highlight different aspects of humanitarian quality and accountability, there are many commonalities between the initiatives.  For example,

  • People In Aid first highlighted the importance of good people management and this is an area on which all the initiatives now agree.
  • The Sphere Project developed technical standards and policies in four technical areas of response. INEE members similarly developed standards and policies for the education sector.
  • All the initiatives agree about the importance of organizational learning.


How do the initiatives complement one another?

Several of the initiatives are intended to complement one another. For example,

  • The Guide Synergie Qualité incorporates the COMPAS Rose.
  • ECB tools and resources were developed with assistance from HAP, People In Aid and Sphere.
  • The INEE Minimum Standards are formally recognised as companion standards by Sphere


What are the differences between the different Quality and Accountability Initiatives?

For example, differences include:

  • Sphere’s Common Standards emphasise commitment to participation and measuring beneficiary results; HAP believes such commitment should be externally verified.
  • Most of the initiatives set standards; but ECB has developed resources and builds people capacity to help agencies adhere to standards and policy that already exist.
  • Quality COMPAS sees quality and accountability as part of a comprehensive organisational framework: Synergie Qualité reminds staff that the context in which they work must determine the quality and accountability tools they select and how they use them.