Joint Standards Initiative - Joint Deployment to the Horn of Africa October 2011 - January 2012

 In July 2011, HAP International, the Sphere Project and People In Aid called for greater quality and accountability1 in the humanitarian response to the Horn of Africa. An agreement between the three initiatives was made to collaborate on a joint deployment to the Horn of Africa to assist agencies in responding to the crisis. The overarching aim of the deployment was to support humanitarian agencies in providing accountable and appropriate programming that meets accepted standards of quality and accountability.

The objectives of the Joint Deployment were:

• To identify and support the delivery of appropriate support and learning activities with humanitarian actors in order to strengthen their understanding of, and ability to apply, established quality and accountability mechanisms and approaches
• To collaborate with relevant stakeholders and advocate for quality and accountability of the wider humanitarian response, including through raising awareness of existing approaches to Q&A and highlighting strengths and gaps observed to date
• To document and share good practice and learning in order to build on the pool of resources available for senior managers and practitioners in the Horn of Africa and globally, and for use as part of wider discussions on the „state of? quality and accountability as part of current humanitarian response.

The Joint Deployment took place over a 9-week period between 27 October 2011 and 31 January 2012. The underpinning concept of the Joint Deployment was to build on a process of taking account of key stakeholders, most importantly affected communities.