Overall targets
The objective of this activity is to contribute towards ensuring that people and communities who are vulnerable to risk and affected by disaster, conflict or poverty influence and access quality assistance, and can hold organizations accountable.
Immediate targets
The overall objective is sought achieved by ensuring that the organizations involved increase effectiveness, relevance and impact of interventions through capacity building and integration of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) within both managerial and implementing levels. It is an equally important co-objective to intensify and consolidate the partnerships already initiated, both along the south-north axis as well as along the lateral axis in Denmark as well as Africa. By jointly engaging in this capacity development activity, the involved organizations are expected to cultivate a shared vision of future priorities as well as a united platform from which to engage in future activities.
Target groups
The final, and most important target group is the end beneficiaries. This lies in the ethos of the CHS itself. Integrating the CHS is a means towards a better end, namely improved quality and effectiveness of assistance provided to beneficiaries in need of humanitarian and/or development aid. Within this activity as described, however, the end beneficiaries are not the direct target group. Conscious of the focus on developing and enhancing partnerships among the four participating organizations through this joint CHS capacity building process, it becomes clear that the primary target group are members of the four participating organizations. Staff members to participate in the initial training will represent all levels within all four organizations, from policy and management levels through administrative staff to project staff on the ground. The first phase will entail training of trainers. These will train colleagues until the entire organization and all active volunteers have undergone the training. After the intervention, new colleagues and recruits will undergo the same training in order to ensure that the entire organization continuously integrates and adhere to the CHS.
Resume
During recent years, numerous unfortunate accounts of aid workers’ misconduct towards vulnerable groups have demanded a heightened focus not only on what we do and how efficiently we achieve results with less resources, but indeed also how these results are achieved, at the level of direct human interaction. Despite humanitarian organizations’ significant professionalization process in recent years, more needs to be done in terms of direct accountability vis-à-vis beneficiaries. Actions on a person-to-person level must be governed by the highest principles of mutual respect and equal rights, regardless of who is the doer of deeds and who is the receiver of assistance and regardless of the specific context. Beneficiaries need to know their rights, need to be able to hold organizations accountable, and need to be co-creators of projects that are relevant from their point of view and support their long-term self-reliance. It has become increasingly evident that more work is called for to ensure that what we may have taken for granted rather needs to be installed as clear guiding principles for proper and dignified conduct on a person-to-person level. Moreover, the implementation of these principles needs to be monitored and reflected upon continuously, to ensure unrelenting adherence and effective implementation. The objective of this activity is to contribute towards ensuring that people and communities who are vulnerable to risk and affected by disaster, conflict or poverty influence and access quality assistance, and can hold organizations accountable. This is sought achieved by ensuring that the organizations involved increase effectiveness, relevance and impact of interventions through capacity building and integration of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) within both managerial and implementing levels.