The Humanitarian Standards Partnership: Promoting Quality and Accountability

Apr 22, 2018 | by The SEEP Network

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This webinar focused on the importance of standards in humanitarian aid and longer-term development. As practical examples of the structure and use of standards, we examined the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards – the industry consensus on market-based standards for economic recovery programs and the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) – the humanitarian standard on livestock protection in emergencies. Presented in collaboration with the Humanitarian Standards Partnership, the webinar highlighted:

• The need and purpose of Standards for humanitarian aid and development
• The purpose and aim of the Humanitarian Standards Partnership
• How Standards are structured to promote coherence and complementarity among standards -- using the MERS and LEGS as examples

Background

Founded on humanitarian principles and human rights, humanitarian standards allow humanitarian actors to be held accountable to the people they serve. They support local, national, and international aid organizations in providing high-quality protection and assistance. Developed by thousands of experts globally and based on evidence, experience, and learning, they are among the most recognized statements of quality in humanitarian work.

The Humanitarian Standards Partnership (HSP) aims to improve the quality and accountability of humanitarian action through an increased application of humanitarian standards. Developed by the SEEP Network, The Minimum Economic Recovery Standards is a member of the Humanitarian Standards Partnership, which also include the Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS), INEE Minimum Standards for Education, the Livestock and Emergency Guidelines Standards (LEGS), and the Minimum Standard for Market Analysis.

Speakers

Shemina Amarsy, Coordinator, Humanitarian Standards Partnership (HSP)

Shemina Amarsy is the Coordinator for the Humanitarian Standards Partnership. Her role is to facilitate the collaboration of the humanitarian standards partners, to promote coherence across these standards and increase their application. Prior to that, she was Senior Standard Manager for Fairtrade International, a multi-stakeholder organization empowering producers and workers in developing countries through trade. She has also worked in the private sector, has more than 15 years of experience in international development and sustainable standards, and has worked in the West Indies, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil and Burkina Faso.

Karri Goeldner Byrne, Senior Market Systems Advisor and Independent Consultant, The SEEP Network

Karri Goeldner Byrne brings over 20 years of leadership and management experience from some of the world’s most challenging environments, including Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Bosnia. She has worked extensively on market systems and livelihoods programming, and more recently has begun helping teams apply adaptive management practices to their work. She supported SEEP Network with the update of the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (part of the Sphere Standards), and is keen to see more collaboration between the private sector and the humanitarian community. Karri is based in Scotland.

Cathy Watson, LEGS Coordinator and Independent Consultant

Cathy is a social development consultant currently based in the United Kingdom, and working on pastoral development with a particular focus on pastoral livelihoods, and gender and pastoralism. Her consultancy experience includes participatory research and writing; evaluations; training and capacity building; strategic planning; and workshop facilitation. Cathy’s long-term field work experience includes 4 years with Turkana pastoralists in Kenya; 4 years with Karimojong pastoralists in Uganda; support to small-holder farmers in Zimbabwe and Kenya; and urban poverty and livelihoods in Ethiopia. Her employment experience includes social science support to NGO development worker teams, NGO middle management, and leading research teams. She has a Bachelor degree from the University of Bristol and a Masters degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester.

Moderator

Sonya Salanti, Senior Program Manager, Resilient Markets, The SEEP Network

Sonya manages SEEP's Resilient Markets thematic area. Resilient Markets is aimed at resourcing organizations and practitioners to develop and implement scalable and effective markets-based programming to build economic resiliency in fragile and conflict-affected environments. The current portfolio of programs includes Disaster Risk Reduction for Financial Services, the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (MERS), and the Livelihoods and Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE) project in Lebanon.