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