32. Quality and Accountability

CARE is committed to responding to humanitarian crises in such a way that it has the greatest, longest-lasting impact on the lives of those people affected. This commitment is enshrined in its Global Programme Strategy(CARE 2020) and Humanitarian and Emergency Strategy (2013-2020; HES).

CARE’s Humanitarian Accountability Framework (HAF, see section 3 below) sets out how accountability is a constant, guiding principle in CARE’s humanitarian work which, when applied at every stage of the programme cycle, provides an essential means of achieving high programme quality standards and greatest impact.

For CARE accountability is not an add-on but is integral to every aspect of its work and the responsibility of every CARE staff member. Having a HAF as a core policy commitment means making decisions, managing performance and measuring success in an accountable way. It means that transparency, engagement and empowerment are built-in features of good quality humanitarian programme management.

This chapter is intended to guide CARE staff, particularly those in Country Offices who are engaged in humanitarian programming, in the application of CARE’s HAF.

CARE publicly recognizes its obligation to give voice to and be held to account by all stakeholders, not least the people affected by humanitarian crises, its implementing partners and its staff. CARE also understands that careful application of accountability standards improves the quality and relevance and enhances the positive impact of its humanitarian programming. With its membership of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance,  CARE makes a public commitment to uphold and promote global standards of quality and accountability that have been set and agreed by leading humanitarian actors including CARE. This chapter provides also the quality and accountability framework required of each full member of the CHS-Alliance.

Programme quality when responding to humanitarian crises means addressing immediate needs in an appropriate, effective and timely manner. Good quality cannot be achieved without accountability. Only when people whose lives are affected by crisis are meaningfully engaged in programme design, delivery and review will their needs be met and will they be supported by CARE to become empowered, less exposed to risk and more resilient in the long-term.

Accountability is the responsible exercise of power and therefore must be a built-in feature of an agile response management practice: how decisions are made in a response, how performance of a response is managed, and how success of a response is defined and measured . CARE must be accountable from top to bottom, bottom to top, inside and out, and to every stakeholder. Most important of all, the decisions CARE makes at every stage of a humanitarian crisis must be determined by the needs, concerns and interests the women, men, girls and boys whose lives are affected. CARE must make those decisions in the spirt of openness and transparency and be accountable for their impact.

CARE is committed to a wide range of internal and interagency policies and standards. Central to these standards and policies is our commitment to being directly accountable for the quality of our work by making certain that communities affected by disasters have a say in planning, implementing and judging CARE’s response. However, the large number of different standards and accountability initiatives can be confusing.

In order to simplify their application CARE’s Humanitarian Accountability Framework (HAF), first developed in 2010 and then revised in 2016:

• shows how they relate to each other, rather than providing an entirely new set of standards or benchmarks
• clarifies what CARE staff (CO staff, Lead Members, CEG, CARE members) will actually be held accountable for during emergency responses
• defines compliance systems to ensure implementation of the HAF is driven by senior management, who are expected to model appropriate behaviours to ensure genuine accountability
• is a policy statement and framework on quality and accountability for CARE’s humanitarian mandate. It sets out how accountability is a constant, guiding principle in CARE’s humanitarian work which, when applied at every stage of the programme cycle, provides an essential means of achieving high programme quality standards and greatest impact.

Therefore, the HAF has three components which are described in more detail in the following sections:

• COMMITMENTS on Humanitarian Quality and Accountability (see section 4.)
• TARGETS for CARE’s Humanitarian Performance (see section 5)

ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM for monitoring compliance with commitments and performance against targets (see section 6)

All CARE staff and offices should understand and comply with the HAF in the design, delivery and review of humanitarian programming. Compliance requires meaningful engagement with and the empowerment of people affected by crisis, partners and CARE staff. The HAF, as such, prescribes a culture of transparency and learning to drive real-time and long-term improvements in CARE’s responses to humanitarian crises. The HAF is also a vehicle for bringing CARE together in focus, coherence and consistency to achieve high quality, accountable humanitarian programming across the globe.

For more information and documentation related to the HAF go to HAF folder in Minerva.

The nine Commitments on Humanitarian Quality and Accountability included in CARE’s Humanitarian and Accountability Framework (HAF) are in principle the same set out in the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS).

The Humanitarian Performance Targets included in CARE’s Humanitarian and Accountability Framework (HAF) are defined by CARE  based on  priorities and critical outcomes described by CARE’s  Global Programme Strategy (CARE 2020) and the Humanitarian and Emergency Strategy (HES 2013-2020). They are thus related to CARE’s strategic performance as a humanitarian organisation undergoing a finite period of evolution and bound to specific ambitions.

Each Performance Target includes its own set of indicators against which CARE is able to measure its performance during each emergency response, across the organisation and over time.

All humanitarian programme monitoring and evaluation is part of CARE’s commitment to accountability and connected to CARE’s HAF Accountability System. The HAF Accountability System is designed to monitor how well CARE performs against both its Humanitarian Quality and Accountability Commitments and its Humanitarian Performance Targets within each emergency response. Furthermore, the system allows individual response performances to be compared with one another, across the globe and over time.

CARE’s Programme Information and Impact Reporting System (PIIRS) and the CHS verification process will support the synthesis and analysis of CARE’s organization wide performance against HAF targets and commitments which will be summarized and presented in the annual Humanitarian Performance Metrics reports.

Key HAF related reporting outputs include:

• project and programme monitoring reports
• Rapid Accountability Review (RAR) reports
• After Action Review (AAR) reports
• Response Performance Summaries (RPS)
• Reports on Accountability Matrixes (for Type 4 responses)
• project, programme and thematic evaluation reports
• Crisis Overviews
• Humanitarian Performance Metrics reports (annual synthesis of RPS findings and scores)
• CHS alignment reports and rolling scorecard (bi-annual, public)

Monitoring, RAR and AAR outputs as well as the RPS are shared internally within CARE through the Crisis Coordination Group and ERWG in order to allow for immediate management response action. Core data from these sources are also stored in CARE’s database for humanitarian crisis and responses. The database is currently under construction and will ultimately allow the visualization of real time performance data for all stakeholders in CARE for enhanced management efficiency, transparency and mutual accountability.

Humanitarian Performance Metrics reports are compiled each year for the CARE International Senior Leadership Team (Humanitarian & Operations). All Performance Metrics reports, evaluation reports and CHS verification outputs are, for the sake of accountability, shared via CARE’s International’s Electronic Evaluation Library (EEL). Synthesized performance data and the results of the CHS verifications will be made public as a rolling scorecard together with the related improvement plans as required by the statutes of the CHS Alliance. The report of a met-analysis in 2016 of CARE’s humanitarian work against CHS commitments together with an initial scorecard using the CHS quality criteria and indicators can be found in the CHS folder on Minerva.

For fuller guidance on all monitoring and evaluation, please refer to the relevant chapter of this toolkit. For RAR reports, AAR reports, Performance Metrics reports and other useful documents, please refer to the Annexes in this chapter.

Compliance with CARE’s Humanitarian Accountability Framework (HAF) is a CARE-wide obligation and priority. It is the responsibility of every CARE staff member to treat quality and accountability (Q&A) as integral to his or her role. All CARE Country Offices and CARE Members should have plans in place for operationalization the HAF in their particular context and for relevant monitoring its implementation.

The CARE Emergency Group (CEG) maintains oversight of CARE’s humanitarian Q&A performance – including leadership on Rapid Accountability Reviews (RAR), Response Performance Summaries, Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Verification, Humanitarian Performance Metrics.

This checklist is intended for Country Offices engaged in an emergency response. It draws from CARE’s Humanitarian Accountability Framework (HAF), which incorporates the CARE Humanitarian Quality and Accountability Commitmentsand Humanitarian Performance Targets  and the relevant Compliance System.

WHAT to DO

1. ensure that an organisational culture of transparency and accountability is modelled at every level including CARE leadership.
2. plan and budget for quality and accountability (Q&A) including M&E capacity, feedback and complaints mechanisms, reviews and evaluations (see also chapter on M&E).
3. ensure that that Q&A commitments are integral to every CARE staff member’s role and every stage of CARE’s humanitarian programme cycle
4. ensure that CARE’s response is timely and reaches as many people as possible according to CARE Performance Targets whilst maintaining high Q&A standards as indicated in CARE’s Humanitarian Commitments
5. have in place safe and responsive feedback and complaints mechanisms that are designed, implemented and monitored with the involvement of people affected by crisis
6. meaningfully engage all stakeholders, and primarily those people affected by crisis, throughout the programme cycle, such they are informed, empowered and able to influence CARE’s response
7. ensure that robust monitoring and evaluation and HAF compliance processes – Rapid Accountability Reviews and After Action Reviews – take place, for the sake of accountability as well as to enable real-time and long-term improvements in CARE’s humanitarian programming
8. ensure that CARE’s response is focused on its core sectors and aligned with its programme approach such that it promotes post-emergency transition, recovery and resilience-building
9. assess and monitor the risks, vulnerabilities and capacities of people affected by crisis, making sure to plan and adapt programming accordingly
10. ensure that there is adequate protection of all stakeholders, including people affected by crisis, CARE and partner staff, and that any negative effects of CARE’s programming are mitigated and managed
11. coordinate effectively with other humanitarian actors, including ensuring adherence to CHS commitments and to relevant technical programming standards, and jointly organisng appropriate verification processes
12. develop effective, accountable working relationships with partners based on clear and consistent agreements whilst supporting and ensuring their adherence to CARE’s HAF
13. ensure that staff are sufficiently skilled and supported to adhere to the HAF (and thereby to deliver good quality, accountable humanitarian programming)
14. ensure that staff policies and procedures are fair, transparent, non-discriminatory and compliant with local employment law
15. ensure efficiency and transparency (including sharing information on community-level budgets and expenditure) whilst avoiding diversion and wastage in the management of financial resources

WHAT NOT to DO

1. Fail to establish and communicate clear accountability systems during an emergency response, both within CARE and partners
2. Not allocate dedicated resources for monitoring and evaluation from the early phases of the emergency response
3. Not provide communities with timely or adequate information about their entitlements
4. Think there’s not enough time or capacity to involve disaster-affected communities in participatory processes
5. Establish beneficiary feedback or complaints systems that are difficult to access by vulnerable groups and/or can be manipulated by elite people – or none at all.
6. Measure simple outputs, e.g. quantities of food distributed, rather than using accepted quality standards and indicators (e.g. CHS, Sphere) to assess and monitor needs and assistance provided
7. For new staff, focusing only on technical training and not bother with orientation on relevant parts of the Humanitarian Accountability Framework (codes of conduct, etc.)
8. Not prioritise capacity building/orientation in practical accountability methods and mechanisms of ‘front-line’ field staff from CARE and partners that are the primary points of contact with communities
9. Not adapt monitoring and evaluation, and accountability systems for longer-term projects and programmes to a more dynamic and fast-moving context of an emergency response.

While HAF compliance relates to all of CARE and is the responsibility of every CARE staff member, this checklist highlights only the most critical Q&A actions and responsibilities for Country Offices engaged in an emergency response. It should be read alongside the sections on Q&A roles and responsibilities, Q&A resourcing, and Q&A support.

How quickly and effectively CARE is able to meet benchmarks and targets defined in the HAF will depend largely on the context. While the HAF will be used as a basis in judging the quality and accountability of each response, this will be in the context of a ‘good enough’ approach. The good enough guide acknowledges that in an emergency response, adopting a quick and simple approach to impact measurement and accountability may be the only practical possibility. ‘Good enough’ does not mean second best, but rather it means recognising and acknowledging limitations in terms of capacity and time, prioritising appropriately, taking steps to anticipate and fill gaps and, when the situation changes, review and revise accordingly.

The Country Office (CO) must ensure that there is sufficient staff capacity and financial resource to support implementation of CARE’s Humanitarian Accountability Framework (HAF) from the outset of any emergency response. As far as possible costs for staffing (including training, salaries and other costs) and specific activities (including communications and any relevant monitoring or learning activities) should be included in donor-funded project budgets.

Activity budgets should include resourcing for:

• induction and capacity building for all CARE and partner staff on the HAF
• communications and information provision (primarily to people affected by crisis)
• stakeholderfeedback and complaints systems
• compliance and accountability processesincluding Rapid Accountability Reviews (RAR), After Action Reviews (AAR), and routine monitoring activities as well as (external) evaluation(s)

Human resources budget lines for quality and accountability might include:

• aFocal Point on programme quality and accountability (this could be included as part of the responsibility of an existing M&E coordinator)
• field-based Accountability Officers
• (a proportion of the time of) an Information and/or Communications Manager
• (a proportion of the time of) localProject Managers for organizing induction and capacity building activities for staff and partners
• special technical assistance(e.g. deployment of a specialist from another part of CARE)

The CARE Emergency Group (CEG) and all CARE Members must also have adequate resources for quality and accountability in place for activities such as HAF training; supporting RARs; participating, supporting or leading (CARE members: Type 2; CEG: Type 4) AARs and other accountability-related processes; and engagement in inter-agency networks, not least the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) Alliance.

Country Offices (CO) requiring guidance on humanitarian programme quality and accountability, particularly in relation to CARE’s Humanitarian and Accountability Framework (HAF) and the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), can contact their Regional Humanitarian Coordinator (RHC) or the CARE Emergency Group (CEG) Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability Coordinator (MEAC).

COs can also access specialist technical support on quality and accountability during emergency response operations via the Roster for Emergency Deployment (RED) following standard personnel mobilisation procedures. The Q&A section of the RED is managed by the CEG-MEAC who can be contacted through emergencyQA@careinternational.org.