CHS Alliance launched in Geneva

The CHS Alliance was formally established as a Swiss Association in Nairobi in June. Its 19-member Interim Board of directors is chaired by Robert Glasser. Judith Greenwood, the Alliance’s newly appointed Executive Director, leads the 20 staff. The CHS Alliance has over 200 member-organisations worldwide.

The “CHS” in the organisation’s name stands for , a voluntary code that describes the essential elements of principled, accountable and quality humanitarian action.

Launched in Copenhagen in December 2014, the CHS was jointly developed by the Groupe URD (Urgence, Réhabilitation, Développement), HAP International, People In Aid and the Sphere Project.

The CHS draws on key elements of several existing humanitarian standards and commitments including the Red Cross/Red Crescent and NGO Code of Conduct, the Sphere Handbook Core Standards and Protection Principles, the HAP Standard, the People In Aid Code of Good Practice and the Quality COMPAS method developed by Groupe URD.

As the name of the organisation suggests, the CHS will be the focus of the activities carried out by the CHS Alliance, which will work together with the Groupe URD and the Sphere Project to establish the CHS as a common reference framework for humanitarian actors.

“We welcome the CHS Alliance as a new partner in the quality and accountability sector, building on the collaboration that Sphere has enjoyed with HAP and People In Aid,” said Sphere Project Director Christine Knudsen.

“As we integrate the CHS into the Sphere Handbook and related toolkits, it is good news that practitioners will have many resources to draw on to support their commitment to quality and accountable humanitarian action.”

Bringing together HAP’s and People In Aid’s expertise in the provision of services to members and partners in the humanitarian and development sectors, the CHS Alliance will provide technical assistance and capacity-strengthening in the areas of organisational quality, accountability and people management.

The CHS Alliance will notably develop a verification scheme that will allow organisations to measure the extent to which they have successfully applied the requirements of the CHS, which will remain a voluntary standard.

The Geneva launch of the CHS Alliance also marked the release of the Alliance’s first publication, the 2015 Humanitarian Accountability Report, entitled: On the Road to Istanbul: how can the World Humanitarian Summit make humanitarian response more effective?

The report suggests that in order to improve effectiveness, the humanitarian sector should build upon and reinforce five key areas: principled humanitarian response; (2) standards, which have shown their support to appropriate, effective and timely aid; (3) national capacity; (4) collective accountability, which requires inclusiveness, transparency and a common language; and (5) good people management practices.

Free to download from the CHS Alliance website, the report is available in English.