News

HAP and Sphere expertise to Haiti

Photo: Nils Carstensen

Since the devastating earthquake of January 12th 2010, Haiti has received enormous assistance from the outside world. More than 600 humanitarian agencies are working in response to the Haiti earthquake, and the list keeps growing.

However, not all of these agencies are familiar with the international standards for quality and accountability in humanitarian response, such as HAP (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership) and Sphere. Even the experts sometimes need a refresher. In addition, it’s important for the Haitian government to understand their role in disaster response management, and the key standards that are relevant for delivering assistance to the affected population.

This is why DanChurchAid has taken the initiative to establish a project, which aims at improving the accountability and quality of the humanitarian response amongst all responding agencies, including both international and Haitian organisations, and the UN. Teams of specialists in HAP and Sphere have been deployed to Haiti for 6 months to train humanitarian agencies to live up to key humanitarian standards. This work is funded in part by Danida and by other ACT Alliance members, including Norwegian Church Aid, ICCO, and Christian Aid.

Read the joint press release issued by ACT, RedR, Bioforce, DCA, SPHERE, HAP and ECHO here.