Humanitarian Exchange 52: Special feature - Humanitarian Accountability

This edition, co-edited with ALNAP’s John Mitchell and Paul Knox-Clarke, is dedicated to accountability in humanitarian action. In their overview article our co- editors reflect on the underlying rationales – both moral and practical – we use to justify our commitments to improving accountability, and whether our understanding of accountability has changed in the decade since the ‘accountability revolution’ last featured in Humanitarian Exchange.

Humanitarian accountability 3 Reflections on the accountability revolution 5 United we stand? Collective accountability in the humanitarian sector 8 Only as strong as our weakest link: can the humanitarian system be collectively accountable to affected populations? 10 Real Time Evaluations: contributing to system-wide learning and accountability 13 NGO certification: time to bite the bullet? 15 Accountability – don’t forget your staff 18 Humanitarian leadership and accountability: contribution or contradiction? 22 The role of donors in enhancing quality and accountability in humanitarian aid 24 Accountability: the DEC’s experience 27 A framework for strengthening partnering accountability and effectiveness 31 Community feedback and complaints mechanisms: early lessons from Tearfund’s experience 34 Sexual exploitation and abuse by UN, NGO and INGO personnel: a self-assessment 36 Corruption in the NGO world: what it is and how to tackle it 39 Delivering communications in an emergency response: observations from Haiti 42 Local perspectives of the Haiti earthquake response 44 NGO accountability: findings from South Sudan