Paper details

Paper authors	Shemina Amarsy
In panel on	Participation and Accountability in Humanitarian Disaster Management
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Centred on accountability and active participation of affected populations in humanitarian assistance, humanitarian standards foster participation and empowerment of affected communities. Putting the rights of disaster-affected populations at the centre of humanitarian action, they allow humanitarians to hold themselves accountable to the people they serve (downwards accountability) and to their donors (upwards accountability). Yet most often when a disaster strikes, humanitarian agencies tend to take the lead of the response, and affected communities continue to play a modest role in humanitarian programme planning and decision-making. This leads to uneven power-dynamics between humanitarians and disaster victims.
Humanitarian standards offer to anchor disaster preparedness, response or recovery in a rights-based and participatory approach. They present strategies and issues around generating a locally appropriate and locally “owned” strategy for disaster risk reduction and response. How can they help addressing the power imbalance between major humanitarian actors and local disaster affected communities? This paper will depict the major obstacles and best practices around these questions as examined by the Humanitarian Standards Partnership.

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