Meeting of the Quality & Accountability Working Group, Vienna, 15 May 2018

15/05/2018

A meeting of the Quality and Accountability Working Group took place on 15 May 2018 in Vienna. It was an opportunity to review the projects and activities of the participating organisations, and to identify potential synergies and collaborations. During the meeting, the participants discussed the new pilot version of the COMPAS, as well as an initiative being developed by Ground Truth Solutions, called the “Humanitarian Voice Index” (HVI), and the impact of different scandals in the sector on current accountability mechanisms and initiatives. Groupe URD has been part of this Working Group since 2005.

This meeting was organised by Ground Truth Solutions in Vienna, and was attended by the CHS Alliance, ALNAP, Accountable Now, and the Disaster Emergency Committee, as well as Handicap International and Sphere who participated by teleconference.

After a discussion of the pilot version of the Quality and Accountability COMPAS, Ground Truth Solutions presented an initiative that is currently being developed, the Humanitarian Voice Index, which aims to help share the opinions of people affected by a crisis about the quality and accountability of the humanitarian operations that concern them. A discussion also took place about the lessons learned from the different scandals that have affected the sector and their impact on current accountability mechanisms and initiatives.

The objective of the Quality and Accountability Working Group is to share information, identify possible synergy between the members’ activities and to influence the humanitarian sector in order to improve quality and accountability. Groupe URD has been an active member of this working group since 2005.