Effective Monitoring and Beneficiary Accountability Practices for Projects Implemented Remotely in Insecure Environments

Remote management approaches to project implementation are increasingly being utilised
by humanitarian and development organisations in an attempt to reach vulnerable
populations in conflict-affected regions that experience medium-to-high insecurity, whilst
safeguarding portions of organisational personnel. What may once have been perceived as
temporary modes of operation have ceased to be so and remote management has become a
(semi) permanent approach to project implementation in many countries (e.g. Afghanistan,
Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan). With the boom in remote management
approaches has come the introduction of several publications and guidance papers seeking
to provide recommendations to humanitarian and development organisations that utilise
these management approaches. What has been consistently lacking, however, is a
distinctive focus on project monitoring and beneficiary accountability; more particularly, how
these practices are affected by the use of remote management. This project, Effective
Monitoring and Beneficiary Accountability Practice for Remotely Managed Projects in
Insecure Environments, has sought to begin to address this, identifying key issues and
concerns for project monitoring and beneficiary accountability that arise in remotely managed
projects, and seeking to develop existing and innovative good practice solutions to address
these issues1.