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Self Report 2017

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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2D
Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility
  • GOAL Global commits to adopt the IASC statement on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse at the individual agency level.
  • Policy
  • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    As GOAL works towards its mission of ensuring that the poorest and the most vulnerable people in the world have access to the fundamental rights of life, we must always uphold and be seen to practice the highest standards of behaviour, accountability and integrity with everyone we encounter. GOAL is committed to the protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) by its staff and recognizes both the particular vulnerability of women, girls and boys to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) as well as the inherent power dynamics evident within humanitarian and development partnerships.

  • Achievements at a glance

    GOAL drafted its Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy in Q4 2016, which is currently undergoing a validation and approval process prior to being rolled out to the organisation. A guidance note on Child Protection in Emergencies was also drafted. GOAL revised its Code of Conduct taking the opportunity to include the key elements of the draft PSEA policy and to harmonize it further with the organisation’s Child Protection Policy. GOAL’s internal mechanisms for reporting suspected protection issues have also been strengthened through further work on complaints response mechanisms and GOAL’s revised whistleblowing policies.

    GOAL developed guidelines and checklists for its compliance and internal audit that take account of the CHS, child protection and gender standards. The objective is to ensure that protection is not only confined to a programme approach, but also to our systems.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    Safeguarding, covering GBV (including SEA) and child protection, have been included as organisational core indicators. All GOAL countries complete compulsory annual self-audits on child protection, which has been expanded to include PSEA and GBV for 2017. Audits and resulting plans of action are reported to the Board of Directors. These self-audits will have elements checked by Compliance and Internal Audit in 2017.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    Multiple priorities and staff turnover, which affected the gender and protection focal persons in the field, led to delays in the drafting of the PSEA policy and its review.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    In 2017, GOAL will finalise and roll out the draft PSEA policy and draft guidelines on child protection in emergencies. GOAL will also complete a mapping of available PSEA services for all GOAL countries of operation. This database will identify organisations (private or public) who can respond locally to referred abuse cases (e.g. counselling, medical/ legal support, etc.) or provide training and support to our teams. Results will be shared with the Report the Abuse database (www.reporttheabuse.org). A PSEA/ GBV self-audit will be completed for all countries. All data collected will have to be desegregated by age and gender.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Accountability to affected people ☑ Gender

  • Other related Agenda for Humanity transformations

    ☑3D - Empower and protect women and girls

4A
Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

Individual Commitment

  • Commitment
  • Commitment Type
  • Core Responsibility
  • GOAL Global commits to make sustained funding conditional on the systematic collection of feedback from affected people on the quality and utility of humanitarian programmes.
  • Financial
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
  • GOAL Global commits to establishing a common approach to providing information to affected people and collecting, aggregating and analysing feedback from communities to influence decision-making processes at strategic and operational levels.
  • Operational
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
  • GOAL Global commits to adopt the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) and International Aid Transparency Initiative Standard, with clear benchmarks for achieving these through the CHS Alliance self-assessment tool.
  • Policy
  • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity

  • What led your organization to make the commitment?

    Historically, GOAL has worked in close collaboration with communities and local authorities to implement programs and has relied on participatory monitoring and evaluation techniques that were driven by the country program leadership. Approaches differed from country to country. As the scale of some of GOAL's country programs grew and best practices in accountability evolved, GOAL sought to diversify and strengthen feedback and complaint response mechanisms (CRM) within our country programs and develop organisational standards that country programs are required to meet. These efforts will help to ensure programs are responsive to local systems.

  • Achievements at a glance

    Complaints and response mechanisms were operationalized in 8 GOAL countries during 2016 and enhanced in a further 6 GOAL countries. GOAL established and publicised a portal, Speak Up, through which staff, beneficiaries or associates can report fraud and serious issues to headquarters. Further, GOAL implemented quarterly CRM reporting to the GOAL Board of Directors analysing feedback and complaints received from GOAL country programs. Best practices and lessons learned from GOAL country programmes in Honduras, Ethiopia and Ukraine were aggregated and shared.

    GOAL implemented training on the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), including CHS 5 on complaints handling, which was completed by over 730 GOAL staff globally during the course of 2016.

  • How is your organization assessing progress

    GOAL has a dedicated Accountability Advisor who works with each country to provide technical support as they develop their accountability measures. During the annual planning process, country teams reflect on their MEAL systems and have an opportunity to identify assistance needed or advancements they aim to accomplish. On a quarterly basis, data from the CRM systems is analysed and shared with the organization's SMT and Board of Directors.

  • Challenges faced in implementation

    Country programs have competing priorities and are working in unpredictable contexts, thus securing staff time and commitment for training is challenging. Developing training materials that were contextually relevant across country programs was time-consuming.

  • Next step to advance implementation in 2017

    As noted, 8 of the 13 GOAL countries have recently introduced CRM systems. In 2017, GOAL will closely monitor the implementation of these systems and modify as necessary, as well continuing to design and roll out CRM systems to remaining GOAL countries. GOAL will seek to continuously train staff and to improve on sharing information obtained through its feedback mechanisms back to local communities. These investments in CRM systems and staff training are part of GOAL's preparations for a CHS accountability and quality standards certification audit in 2017, to benchmark our progress against international best practice.

  • If you had one message for the annual report on what is most needed to advance the transformation 'Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems', what would it be

    GOAL prioritised developing its CRM systems as an organization and had buy-in and support from all levels of management. Consistent messaging across the organization is important and helps ensure the efforts are sufficiently resourced.

  • Cross cutting issues

    ☑Accountability to affected people ☑ People-centred approach