Désirée Walter

Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative (HQAI)

Sexual exploitation and abuse undermines the aid sector as a whole . The sector needs to catalyse change to ensure organisations are accountable and have the leadership, capacity and systems in place to fight back against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH). HQAI – as independent auditor against the Core Humanitarian Standard – can assure that audited organisations have the relevant mechanisms in place: HQAI auditors determine if safeguarding mechanisms exist, if these mechanisms can identify breaches and if they lead to corrective actions. All these elements are interconnected to draw audit conclusions. The standard : As a core standard, the CHS describes the essential elements of principled, accountable and high-quality humanitarian aid. The topic of safeguarding is a cross-cutting theme in the CHS. About one third of the requirements directly or indirectly refer to safeguarding issues, including staff behaviour, do-no-harm and complaints handling but also the involvement of communities in setting-up appropriate feedback and complaint mechanisms. The set-up and control of appropriate mechanisms can minimise the risk that wrong-doing happens, identify an incident when it happens and take corrective actions (e.g. sanctions for perpetrators, assistance to victims and improving these mechanisms based on the learning from each case). HQAI – as independent auditor against the CHS – can assure that audited organisations comply with the standard (in other words: that the mechanisms exist and function). About HQAI : The Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative (HQAI) is an independent auditor for the humanitarian and development sector. Professional, not-for-profit and non-governmental, HQAI offers mechanisms to measure the extent to which organisations are accountable. Accountable to the people they serve, to donors, host governments, and, indeed, their own staff. The standard we use is the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) on Quality and Accountability. HQAI’s role as an independent auditor is to verify that organisations correctly apply the CHS from the head office to the field . The independent audit starts with document reviews and interviews at the head office. Then we visit a selection of country programmes where we interview staff and partners, but most importantly we talk to the people who are affected by crisis. We actively ask for their views and take them into account for our reports and feedback to the organisation. HQAI’s auditing services (see below) are intended to systematically improve the quality and accountability of humanitarian and development work. With safeguarding being a cross-cutting topic in the CHS, HQAI auditors continually check and connect the related CHS requirements. They determine if safeguarding mechanisms existe, if these mechanisms can identify breaches and if they lead to corrective actions. We provide an objective assessment of the performance of organisations and help them credibly demonstrate the quality of their services. This builds trust with stakeholders – including institutional donors who increasingly recognise and recommend HQAI audits. And most importantly we ensure that organisations put vulnerable people at the centre of their work. To make our services accessibly to a variety of organisations we manage a Subsidy Fund. National organisations are encouraged to apply for a Subsidy that can cover up to 90% of the cost of an audit. Read more info here: HQAI audit services: Through a system of independent quality assurance (this means “audit by an external party”) HQAI assesses the performance of organisations. Our audits determine the degree to which the implementation of the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) – and therefore good practice and accountability to affected communities – has been successful. Our audit services include certification, independent verification and benchmarking. Organisations making use of our services are extremely diverse in terms of size (1 to 150 country programmes), types (UN agency, group, national, international) and mandates (humanitarian, development, advocacy). This diversity demonstrates the flexibility of the CHS as a standard, and of HQAI’s methods to measure its application. HQAI is accredited against ISO/IEC 17065:2012 for its CHS certification scheme since 2018.