The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) was created by the IASC in July 2012. It was initially a sub-working group under the IASC Inter-Cluster Working Group.
In early 2011 the IASC, as part of the Transformative Agenda, brought together its members to tangibly and operationally address AAP issues. In December 2011, the principals endorsed five Commitments on Accountability to Affected People/Populations (CAAPs). The five commitments are 1) leadership, 2) transparency, 3) feedback and complaints, 4) participation, and 5) design, monitoring and evaluation. They agreed “….to incorporate the CAAPs into policies and operational guidelines of their organisations and to promote them with operational partners, within the HCT and amongst cluster members”. The principals also agreed to pilot an IASC draft Operational Framework and associated tools.
To give AAP more prominence within the IASC’s subsidiary structure, the working group in July 2012 decided to elevate the status of the sub-group (within the Sub-Working Group on the Cluster Approach) to that of a task force co-led at the Director level by WFP and World Vision International. It was agreed that the new task force would be time limited. It would take forward the action plan developed, steer the implementation of the CAAPs, and further develop and roll out the Operational Framework.
The five Commitments to Accountability to Affected Populations (CAAP) are:
- LEADERSHIP/GOVERNANCE: Demonstrate their commitment to accountability to affected populations by ensuring feedback and accountability mechanisms are integrated into country strategies, programme proposals, monitoring and evaluations, recruitment, staff inductions, trainings and performance management, partnership agreements, and highlighted in reporting.
- TRANSPARENCY: Provide accessible and timely information to affected populations on organizational procedures, structures and processes that affect them to ensure that they can make informed decisions and choices, and facilitate a dialogue between an organisation and its affected populations over information provision.
- FEEDBACK and COMPLAINTS: Actively seek the views of affected populations to improve policy and practice in programming, ensuring that feedback and complaints mechanisms are streamlined, appropriate and robust enough to deal with (communicate, receive, process, respond to and learn from) complaints about breaches in policy and stakeholder dissatisfaction Specific issues raised by affected individuals regarding violations and/or physical abuse that may have human rights and legal, psychological or other implications should have the same entry point as programme-type complaints, but procedures for handling these should be adapted accordingly.
- PARTICIPATION: Enable affected populations to play an active role in the decision-making processes that affect them through the establishment of clear guidelines and practice s to engage them appropriately and ensure that the most marginalised and affected are represented and have influence.
- DESIGN, MONITORING AND EVALUATION: Design, monitor and evaluate the goals and objectives of programmes with the involvement of affected populations, feeding learning back into the organisation on an ongoing basis and reporting on the results of the process
The Operational Framework was initially developed to summarize the key concepts for making programming at the field level more accountable to affected populations. The draft framework is designed to assist implementing agencies both individually and in groups to find practical entry points for improving accountability to affected populations across the project cycle.
Membership:
The IASC AAP Taskforce is chaired by WFP and World Vision International (WVI)
List of members:
to be added
List of Steering Group members:
ALNAP, FAO, Ground Truth, HAP, ICVA, IOM, OCHA, OXFAM, Sphere, UNICEF, WFP and WVI.
For more information about the Task Force or to become a member, please contact any of the co-chairs listed below.