Andy Featherstone, March 2012

The humanitarian challenge Responses to humanitarian crises in Haiti, Pakistan

and the Horn of Africa have pushed the humanitarian system to its limits

A growth in the diversity of aid actors and the politicisation of humanitarian assistance has made the provision of principled humanitarian assistance a challenge.

Humanitarian assistance has become a high stakes game with the risk that humanitarian agencies risk being collectively judged based on the actions of the weakest member.

Strengthening collective humanitarian action Humanitarian reform has sought to bolster leadership,

coordination and accountability of the system

the IASC Principals ‘transformative agenda’ has drilled further into the detail of these important aspects of coordinated response

The value of collective action has also been evidenced in the growth of a plethora of interagency networks and initiatives a number of which focus on quality, accountability and communication

The accountability deficit in HCTs The HC leads and chairs the HCT, but does not have formal

authority over it The HC is accountable for leading and coordinating

humanitarian action, but cannot be held accountable for the results as s/he has no authority over the agencies

The members of the HCT are accountable to their agency heads for the delivery of results. However, they are rarely held accountable for process (such as participation in HCT or clusters) unless they have specific cluster leadership responsibility.

While the ToR for the HCT speaks to their accountability for both processes and results it is unclear who should hold them accountable – and so no one does.

The challenge posed by collective accountability The IASC’s ‘Transformative Agenda’ addresses mutual

accountabilities within HCTs

Collective accountability is a step beyond this and could to address some of the more thorny aspects of humanitarian practice

It also has the potential to significantly strengthen humanitarian outcomes for those in need of assistance.

But it will raise complex dilemmas about agency independence, particularly at a time when divisions run deep in some of the more complex responses