HAP in Pakistan
HAP began working in Pakistan after the South Asian Earthquake in 2008, which killed some 75,000 people and left 400,000 homeless, in 2005. Due to the earthquake's devastation a large number of aid agencies joined the relief effort while those already in-country increased their existing operations. Perhaps as a result of the influx of agencies, some concerns were expressed about the quality of community engagement and accountability to beneficiaries.
As part of HAP's support to its members a team from the Secretariat arrived to assist in capacity building and complaints handling training for local staff. This support visit resulted in the collection of consultation reports from numerous beneficiaries that clearly highlighted a growing lack of confidence in relief agencies, low levels of awareness amongst staff of basic humanitarian principles and agencies not including beneficiary participation in their programs. In an effort to address these issues, HAP Members asked the Secretariat to establish an operation in Pakistan. The HAP Pakistan programme began in October 2005 and closed in July 2009.
For the duration of the Pakistan programmes, HAP worked with members and non-members alike to integrate much needed accountability practices into emergency planning and disaster response. One measurement of success for HAP's Pakistan operation is the continuation of members' engagement and commitment to capacity building activities, particularly as agencies move from emergency relief to development and recovery work.
HAP is continuing its support to the humanitarian work in Pakistan, particularly the 2010 flood response.
Historic first meeting of the Boards of People In Aid, HAP International and the Sphere Project on 25th April, 2012
"To my mind the stand out success of the Lanka Tsunami program was "Accountability". It was obvious from the quantitative and qualitative evaluation data that the ops teams learned from, and worked hard to, include accountability standards into each implementation stage resulted in far greater community satisfaction and ownership with outputs. It was great to see happy stakeholders with realistic expectations being met rather than just people who woke up one day with a house, latrine or well (somewhat begrudgingly in some cases)."
Andrew Lanyon, Operations Director (Program Implementation) Lanka Tsunami Response Team, World Vision International
