Bangkok SOHS 2018 panel discussion: Enhancing collective quality & accountability to affected populations

The State of the Humanitarian System 2018 (SOHS 2018) report was presented in Bangkok as part of an event on collective quality and accountability to affected populations, organised by Community World Service Asia. 180 participants packed into the conference room from a range of Asian-based humanitarian organisations, with quality and accountability advisors sitting alongside country directors and programme officers alike.

I was tasked with presenting the key elements of the report relating to accountability to affected populations. The first thing the report highlights in this area is just how important the issue is. In the recipient survey, people who were consulted or were able to give feedback were over three times more likely to say they had been treated with dignity and respect, than those who had not. They were also two to three times more likely to give positive responses about the relevance and quality of aid they had received. In short, accountability and participation seem to have an effect on the quality of aid and the dignity of the recipient. This is something that most of us have implicitly believed to be true but taken as a matter of faith – now we have evidence to back it up. 

When it comes to assessing how the system has performed on accountability and participation, the report shows that there are more feedback mechanisms, and that crisis-affected people are more engaged in assessments and needs analysis. But there is also a growing level of cynicism about the degree to which consultation actually results in concrete improvements.

The discussion with the panellists and participants went to the heart of this issue. Several audience members cited examples of feedback mechanisms that had been established in response to donor requests, but which failed to influence decision-making when it came down to it. Michael Barnett of George Washington University asked whether the gap between consultation and true engagement is better explained by looking at the roots of humanitarianism in the western-dominated geopolitics of the post-war era. Several audience members echoed his view, asking why we expect technical solutions – such as formalised feedback mechanisms – to fix problems that are political at their core.

It was particularly timely to hear these views expressed now. With global geopolitics in a state of flux, some participants were open to reconsidering the foundations that have underpinned humanitarian endeavour in the 20th Century. Whilst this topic can raise concerns in many quarters, it was refreshing to also consider the opportunities for positive change it can present. All the more so in a setting like Bangkok, host to so many important emerging actors for the future of humanitarian action.

This event summary was written by Neil Dillon, Research Fellow at ALNAP. 

Event details

This event took place in Bangkok on 11 December 2018, as part of Community World Service Asia’s response to the demands for more support on awareness raising, capacity building and collective learning. The event provided a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Quality & Accountability to Affected People, and launched two reports: SOHS 2018 and the Sphere Handbook. Around 180 people attended from across the humanitarian sector.