This month a meeting for members of the Start Network and Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) was held to support organisations in their efforts to meet the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) self-assessment process.
The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability sets out nine commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. This single core standard has been devised to clarify the responsibilities of aid workers, make the implementation of humanitarian standards simpler and easier, and contribute to better humanitarian responses.
At the meeting, discussion with members focussed on how different types of organisations can meet the standards - governance structures vary and therefore verification is not straightforward. Discussion also focussed on issues with scoring in the self-assessment document.
The CHS Alliance, which is working to apply the standards among organisations, also participated in the meeting to get feedback from members of the group.
This Start Network/DEC community of practice has an online discussion group and meets quarterly, the next meeting will be in the autumn.
Start Network members looking to join this group can contact deepti.sastry@startnetwork.org.