20th ALNAP Meeting (December 2006)
One of the recommendations of the TEC Synthesis Report was for regulation of the sector in order “to ensure minimum quality control of the actors”. The synthesis and the thematic TEC Reports contain other proposals aimed at regulation, accreditation, certification and setting of standards. There have also been recommendations for professionalisation of the sector in the recent Clinton NGO Impact Initiative report. It is not the first time that these ideas have arisen; yet they resonate at this moment with several other moves along these lines in the sector.
Over the last ten to fifteen years codes, standards and similar (or varied) attempts to provide guidance, encouragement and frameworks have been developed. While these have led to improvements in humanitarian response, its management and improvement also of the agencies that implement it, the failures and shortcomings of the humanitarian system that are consistently cited in, among other places, the ALNAP Reviews of Humanitarian Action seem to show that they do not make enough of a difference. There also remains a very low entry barrier to the sector, which allows continuing bad practice by new-comers into the sector.
Is the answer then some form of regulation? And how would that be achieved? What would its implications be? The Workshop will look at these questions and suggest ways in which the current renewed debates about regulation can be shaped to give the best chance of helpful outcomes.
