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Self Report 2019

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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  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Empowerment of women and girls

    The Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance former Executive Director continued her engagement as gender champion in the Geneva network until she left the organization end of September. The new executive director took over this engagement from October 2018.

    In 2018, CHS Alliance continued to inform its members who conducted a form of CHS verification (self-assessment, peer review, independent verification or certification) on their performance regarding the gender, age, disability and diversity through the gender and diversity Index that CHS Alliance developed. In 2018, 25 organizations have conducted a form of CHS verification.

    At the end of 2018, a total of 59 organizations had verified their performance. This includes 34 Self-Assessments, 1 Peer Review, 17 Certifications, 6 Independent Verifications, 1 Self-Assessment for secretariats. Amongst these organizations, 47 are international organizations, 4 are national organizations and the CHS Alliance itself. The aggregated data on the gender and diversity are published and regularly updated on the CHS Alliance website.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    The challenge in 2018 was to maintain the progression of the number of self-assessments against the CHS, and CHS Alliance was successful (14 self-assessment in 2017, 16 self-assessment in 2018). CHS Alliance launched the revision of the self-assessment tools in collaboration with the users in order to make the tools user-friendly.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    CHS Alliance has renewed its commitments to the Gender network. In the coming years, CHS Alliance will maintain the monitoring of the gender and diversity index. CHS Alliance will also follow up with our members on the progress through the monitoring of their improvement plans. CHS Alliance will continue using the data on gender and diversity for advocacy purpose.

    In 2019, the CHS verification scheme will be reviewed to ensure it is still relevant and effective to build trust and improvement in the sector.

    Keywords

    Gender, Local action, Quality and accountability standards

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

    Joint Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • The CHS Alliance - over 240 national and international organisations working in more than 160 countries - commits to adopting, using and monitoring the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), with the objective of making humanitarian action more appropriate, effective, and responsive to the needs of people and communities affected by crises through carrying out a self assessment by end of 2017.
    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Partners: Members of the CHS Alliance - over 240 national and international organisations working in more than 160 countries

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • CHS Alliance 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

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to reinforce national and local leadership and capacities in managing disaster and climate-related risks through strengthened preparedness and predictable response and recovery arrangements.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase investment in building community resilience as a critical first line of response, with the full and effective participation of women.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to ensure regional and global humanitarian assistance for natural disasters complements national and local efforts.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    CHS Alliance continued to inform members who conducted a form of CHS verification (self-assessment, peer review, independent verification or certification) on their performance regarding the support to local capacities through the localization index which is made of 13 CHS indicators, mostly from commitments 3 and 6, but also 4 and 9. The involvement of national partners has been reinforced in the self-assessment tools revision. On 29 November 2018 CHS Alliance organized, in collaboration with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a learning event “CHS: A driver of change” in London. At this event a breakout session on the “Working with and through partners” took place. CHS Alliance also, thanks to DEC, support national partners of DEC members to attend the event. Similar events will be organized in regions in 2019

    CHS Alliance encourages national organizations to conduct CHS verification. In 2018, 4 national organizations have conducted the CHS verification.

    The 2018 Humanitarian Accountability Report which addressed “How change happens in the humanitarian sector” included a chapter on “The localization agenda” where the progress on the gender and diversity is analyzed.

    In addition to the community perception survey, a survey among the national partners has started late in 2018 and will be completed in 2019.

    People-centered approaches (feedback mechanisms, community engagement, etc)

    Since the end of 2017, the CHS Alliance has partnered with Ground Truth Solutions (GTS), with financial support from the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), to support the Humanitarian Country Team in Chad in its efforts to improve accountability to affected populations at organizational and collective levels. Thanks to its collaboration with the Chad Humanitarian Country Team, the project enabled the inclusion of perception indicators into the Humanitarian Response Plan to monitor how the 2017-2019 strategic objectives are reached from the perspective of the affected population. Two rounds of community perception surveys were conducted in 2018. Based on the results of the survey, the CHS Alliance supported the humanitarian actors, both international and national, in improving the quality and accountability of the response, using the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) as a framework.

    The CHS Alliance has continued its active involvement in the Grand Bargain participation revolution work stream in 2018, especially in the definition of key success indicators against good practices related to participation of people affected by crisis in humanitarian decisions.

    The CHS Alliance has launched in 2018 a process to define its localization strategy.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Having national organizations conducting CHS verification is still challenging. CHS Alliance is continuing its efforts to support them. 

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Completion and implementation of CHS Alliance localization strategy in 2019

    Follow up on the localization index and the number of national organizations conducting the CHS verification in the coming years

    Two regional learning events (Amman and Bangkok) in 2019.

    Providing support to our members to reinforcing the accountability to affected people is one the focus areas of the CHS Alliance’s 2019 work plan.

    Continue the Chad project in 2019

    Keywords

    Local action, People-centred approach, Quality and accountability standards, Strengthening local systems

  • 4B
    Anticipate, do not wait, for crises

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to improve the understanding, anticipation and preparedness for disaster and climate-related risks by investing in data, analysis and early warning, and developing evidence-based decision-making processes that result in early action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management (including resilience)

    Approximately 80 per cent of CHS Alliance's member organizations who conducted the verification against the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) are dual-mandate, meaning they are working in humanitarian and development contexts. Even if the language used in the CHS is humanitarian-oriented, members working in the development contexts and who are applying the CHS reported that the CHS is applicable to development.

    The preparedness, early recovery, and resilience efforts of the organization are mostly covered in the CHS commitment 3. The “CHS localization index”, which is made of 13 CHS indicators, mostly from commitments 3 and 6, but also 4 and 9 also reveal the performance of the organization regarding the potential to support national and local capacities.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Despite the fact that the number of organizations conducting the CHS verification is increasing year by year, the Alliance still needs to increase this number, especially regarding national organizations. We are developing a localization strategy.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Completion and implementation of CHS Alliance's localization strategy in 2019

    Follow up on the commitment 3 and localization index scores and the number of national organizations conducting the CHS verification in the coming years

    Review of the CHS verification scheme in 2019

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction, Humanitarian-development nexus, Local action, Preparedness, Quality and accountability standards

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis and planning towards collective outcomes

    [As the CHS Alliance is not an operational organization, answers to 4C and are the same as 4B]

    Approximately 80 per cent of CHS Alliance's member organizations who conducted the verification against the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) are dual-mandate, meaning they are working in humanitarian and development contexts. Even if the language used in the CHS is humanitarian-oriented, members working in the development contexts and who are applying the CHS reported that the CHS is applicable to development.

    The preparedness, early recovery, and resilience efforts of the organization are mostly covered in the CHS commitment 3. The “CHS localization index”, which is made of 13 CHS indicators, mostly from commitments 3 and 6, but also 4 and 9 also reveal the performance of the organization regarding the potential to support national and local capacities.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Grand Bargain
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Despite the fact that the number of organizations conducting the CHS verification is increasing year by year, the Alliance still needs to increase this number, especially regarding national organizations. We are developing a localization strategy.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Completion and implementation of CHS Alliance's localization strategy in 2019

    Follow up on the commitment 3 and localization index scores and the number of national organizations conducting the CHS verification in the coming years

    Review of the CHS verification scheme in 2019

    Keywords

    Disaster Risk Reduction, Humanitarian-development nexus, Local action, Quality and accountability standards