Creating a Standard for Standards

Judging by the turnout at the InterAction Forum 2012 workshop “Quality: What Difference Can Greater Coherence Between Standards Make for Organizational and Field Practice?”, creating simplified standards for fieldwork is an increasingly important goal in the aid community. The workshop took the shape of a conversation, led by leaders of the Joint Standards Initiative (JSI): John Damerell, Manager of The Sphere Project; Jonathan Potter, Director of People in Aid; and Robert Schofield, the Executive Director of HAP International. The JSI is working to create a coherent set of standards that can be used for small and large aid organizations involved in humanitarian response and development.

Questions were raised regarding the challenges and complexities organizations face today with multiple sets of standards, how and who should be consulted regarding this problem, and what the future of humanitarian quality and accountability could be. The general consensus was a need to consult field workers and local program managers to determine the implementation of standards. John Ging of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spoke about the reality and practicality of creating a common set of standards and the dangers of bureaucratization, explaining that “there needs to be tolerances built into the system” accounting for change.

The workshop was a great platform for JSI to hear from the NGO community, and they plan to continue this discussion on creating coherent standards through a working group on the topic in which InterAction will participate.

Contributed by Kellie Peake