HAP in Sri Lanka

In 2009 the HAP Roving Team was deployed to Sri Lanka from July to October, for a three month deployment working with HAP members, their partners, and other interested agencies responding to the humanitarian crisis in Northern Sri Lanka with the aim of improving understanding about, and strengthen performance of, NGO humanitarian accountability and quality management practices.

At the time of the deployment more than 250,000 internal displaced people were being held in temporary camps, the largest of which was Menik farm near Vavunyia. Seventeen HAP members were responding either directly or through implementing partners:

ACFID, ACT, ACTED, CAFOD, CARE, Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, Danish Refugee Council, MERCY Malaysia, Muslim Aid, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK, Tearfund, and World Vision, Norwegian Church Aid and PMU Interlife.

Focus of activities
Accountability - a few learning points
What next?
Resources and case studies from Sri Lanka
Funding and support

**NEW** Sri Lanka HAP deployment (July to Oct 2009) - final report is now out!

Focus of Activities

Building on the input given by agencies responding in-country the HAP team focused on a combination of inter-agency and agency-specific activities. More details about the planned engagement in Sri Lanka can be found in the deployment terms of reference. In particular while in-country the HAP team, joined by a member of World vision who was seconded to the team, worked to:

1) Guide agency staff through a self-assessment process, reviewing planned and actual practice against the HAP Standard, in order to identify good practice and gaps.

Following an inter-agency workshop on HAP Standard with 20 staff from 12 agencies, the HAP team worked with 7 agencies as part of the guided self-assessment process: ACTED, Habitat for Humanity (a partner of Tearfund), MERCY Malaysia, Muslim Aid, OfERR (partner of Christian Aid and DanChurchAid), Save the Children UK, and World Vision. In addition focused support on information sharing and complaints handling undertaken with CARE Sri Lanka.

As part of the self-assessment process the teams reviewed current practice, staff understanding and existing systems at Colombo and Vavuniya level through a combination of informal document reviews; discussions with staff using open questions, ranking exercises, and other ‘games’; and observations. This was used as a basis for developing agency specific goals and action plans for addressing the gaps and continuing to strengthen quality and accountability.

2) Facilitate collective learning on issues of humanitarian accountability and quality between HAP members, their partners and other interested agencies within Sri Lanka.

While the idea to establish an ‘Accountability and Quality Working Group’ was not taken up, a number of other activities were undertaken to facilitate collective learning, including:

Engaging non-HAP members and other stakeholders in discussions, trainings and as part of the HAP 2007 Standard review process.
Sharing of existing case studies and tools during workshops, and developing Sri Lanka specific ones as a result of the deployment.
Working with Lutheran World Relief (LWR) who led the process of translating the HAP Standard into Sinhala and Tamil.

3) Analyse, and share outputs and lessons learnt during the deployment, so that HAP and member agencies can continually improve impact and practice.

Towards the end of October an After-Action Review workshop, attended by twenty staff from eleven agencies, was held to review the deployment.

There were positive reflections on the guided self-assessment process, as one Save the Children staff member said: “Through the guided self-assessment we know where we are at against the HAP Standard and where we want to be”. Reviewing practice with the HAP team was also seen as a key motivational tool for staff to continue to improve against identified gaps. Through the workshop we identified a number of ways in which future deployments could be strengthened.

The report from this workshop is now available: After Action Review of the HAP Roving Team deployment to Sri Lanka.

Accountability - a few learning points

Throughout the deployment in Sri Lanka the team was sensitive to the context, and focused on supporting agencies to identify what was possible. It was encouraging to find that while constraints existed there were also opportunities that agencies were able to take advantage of. Below are a few points of learning based on the HAP team’s time in Sri Lanka, for more see: Sri Lanka HAP deployment (July to Oct 2009) - final report

Close monitoring of the external context and its impact on agency ways of working allows for shifts in practice as the context allows. For example as access restrictions eased increased interaction with beneficiaries became possible, presenting opportunities for feedback on project activities to be gathered (abet informally) and utilized.
The importance of inductions for field staff, temporary staff and volunteers, was highlighted. For example field staff and drivers needed to be able to answer questions about their agency when stopped at checkpoints. In addition as volunteers were often one of the main points of contact between affected-people and the agency, guidance on the agency’s expectations regarding engaging with beneficiaries and relaying feedback accurately to the agency is vital.
Field staff informally received feedback and complaints related to agency activities from beneficiaries, as they carried out their jobs in the camps, with different types of programmes providing different degrees of opportunities (for example communal kitchens tended to provide more opportunities, than programmes focused on gully sucking). There was, however, a tendency for these more informal means of feedback to be discounted, and options existed for more systematic collection and use of beneficiary feedback, and formalizing the way in which those complaints received were processed by the agency.
Project monitoring focused more on quantitative and output oriented indictors (for example number of kits distributed, or gallons of water delivered), and could be expanded to also considering qualitative indicators such as those related to beneficiary satisfaction.

What next?

The HAP Roving Team – in February 2010 the HAP Roving Team is planning to follow-up with the agencies who undertook a self-assessment in Sri Lanka, to understand what activities have been undertaken as a result of this, and how agencies are working towards the goals identified. This will also enable the team to better assess the impact of the three month deployment – the findings from this will be added to this webpage.

These findings, as well as the existing learning from the deployment on the approaches and methodology used to engage with HAP members and their partners both before and while in-country, will be incorporated into the next deployment, currently planned for early 2010.

Agencies in Sri Lanka have used the findings from their self-assessment to identify a number actions for strengthening their accountability. These include:

Widely sharing the key findings from the self-assessment with staff across the agency.
Introducing operational partners to the agency’s accountability and quality commitments, and including these in agreements and MoUs with partners.
Based on this partner capacity building plans will be built on or developed.
Ensuring beneficiary feedback and qualitative aspects are part of monitoring formats, so that information is captured on project processes and beneficiary satisfaction.
Replicating the self-assessment process for other programmes and areas within Sri Lanka, to be able to compare findings and identify trends.
Strengthening how information is dissemination to beneficiaries and feedback is sought.
Developing or strengthening complaints handling procedures for beneficiaries and staff.
Translating key documents into local languages for national staff.

Resources and case studies from Sri Lanka

HAP Principles of Accountability are now also available in Sinhala and Tamil. Translation of these was led by Lutheran World Relief.

HAP 2007 Standard is now also available in Sinhala and Tamil. Translation of this was led by Lutheran World Relief.

Case Study: Developing and implementing a contextualised HAF (Danish Refugee Council in Sri Lanka) includes steps in development; implementation and sharing with staff, partners and beneficiaries; how affected-communities can now hold DRC to account; and learning from the process. The latest version of DRC's HAF for Sri Lanka programmes is available via their website.

Case Study: Self-assessment methodology used to review agency accountability during the response in northern Sri Lanka (ACTED). This case study summarises the approach and methodology used to examine practice against the HAP 2007 Standard in a context where access to project beneficiaries was highly restricted.

Tool: Scenario for discussing accountability and quality - The Bus Service. Developed during the HAP deployment to Sri Lanka, this scenario with accompanying facilitator notes has been used with NGO staff to start discussions on quality and accountability and introduce the benchmarks of the HAP 2007 Standard. Good for generating lots of discussion!

Interview: Goldan Gomara from World Vision talks about his experience working with the roving team, during his three month secondment to the team in Sri Lanka.

More case studies and tools of approaches to accountability which have been tried and tested by HAP members across the world can be found on the HAP website on our Case Studies and Tools page.

Funding and support

HAP is pleased to recognise funding support from the European Commission of Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) for this deployment. In addition the following agencies made financial and in-kind contributions for support services received: ACTED, CARE Sri Lanka, Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, Habitat for Humanity, Muslim Aid, Save the Children, and World Vision. In particular we would like to acknowledge the support from Muslim Aid for hosting the HAP Team in Colombo, and World Vision for seconding a staff member to the HAP Team during the deployment.

For more information, to find out more about the work of the HAP team in Sri Lanka, or in other locations, please contact: Emily Rogers: erogers@hapinternational.org

Updated: 8th January 2010