Humanitarian Policy and Practice

The Humanitarian Policy and Practice (HPP) team supports Member NGOs to improve outcomes for affected people through principled humanitarian action.

InterAction serves as a unique and well-placed interlocutor, through our wide network of operational NGOs, close relationships with United Nations (UN) leadership, and representative role on the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). The HPP team provides analysis and recommendations to engage stakeholders in policy initiatives, facilitate dialogue between various actors, and leverage our relationships with civil society to promote outcome-oriented approaches to humanitarian action at the field level.

HPP seeks to facilitate the greatest possible NGO coordination, professionalism, and leadership through providing Member NGOs with a forum to coordinate, consult, and advocate on behalf of those forcibly displaced or otherwise affected by conflict, natural disasters, and other crises.

HPP does this through ensuring that:

• NGOs leverage their expertise and experience to maximize their collective influence and impact in humanitarian crises.

To accomplish this, InterAction works with Members to ensure humanitarian policy and operations inform one another. HPP also creates opportunities for NGOs to improve and implement professional standards and outcome-oriented approaches to reduce human suffering. Furthermore, HPP helps Members amplify innovative and outcome-oriented solutions that enable NGOs to be empowered change agents.

• Principled and effective humanitarian action is demonstrated and supported through NGO engagement on critical issues and crises with each other, donor governments, UN, and other relevant actors.

HPP promotes, coordinates and represents NGO contributions within inter-agency bodies (IASC, Grand Bargain, global clusters) as well as bilaterally with donors, the United Nations agencies and other policies, procedures, funding allocations, and behaviors to enable principled and effective humanitarian action.

• Policies and practices impacting people in humanitarian crises respond to NGO analysis of trends and transformational solutions proposed.

InterAction seeks to ensure that NGO experience, research and thought leadership develops and drives solutions to complex problems that impact humanitarian responses. This includes seeking to reduce impediments to humanitarian action and mitigate their negative consequences, encouraging holistic approaches to displacement, and promoting policy and practice by the U.S., other States, and other parties to conflict which minimizes harm to civilians, including through enhanced compliance with international humanitarian law and other protective norms.