This short course will explore the concept of accountability within humanitarian intervention. In particular it will look at the contemporary significance of accountability for humanitarian response – when and why it has become an important concept for humanitarian intervention, and specific events that have led to a shift from donors to recipients of aid as the agents of accountability.
Key questions that will be explored include:
- To whom are humanitarian agencies accountable? What are the competing accountabilities and how do these influence program decisions and agency performance?
- Why is accountability to beneficiaries important during a humanitarian response? Aside from ideological views, why should the humanitarian sector be concerned with accountability to beneficiaries? What are its end goals?
- What does an effective accountability mechanism look like? How do agencies implement it?
- Do these work? In what contexts? How is their effectiveness being measured? By whom?
- Who are the main actors in this space? An examination of HAP, ALNAP, Listen First, ECB project, current NGO frameworks used in the field.