Rights in Crisis
Oxfam believes that our key stakeholders are those affected by humanitarian crises. We believe that by being more accountable to beneficiaries, humanitarian response programmes can have substantially greater impact, can help affected communities recover more quickly, and can lay stronger foundations for sustainable development.
Being accountable to beneficiaries of humanitarian aid requires more than statements. It requires the development of a number of practical mechanisms to ensure transparency and openness, and to ensure that all humanitarian responses are appropriate to those affected in terms of their content, scale, and in the way they are implemented. These mechanisms include the following:
- Ensuring the participation of affected communities in all aspects of programme response from assessment to evaluation;
- The provision of information relevant to communities' needs in order that they may claim their rights under international humanitarian law, (and, where relevant, the Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced Persons) - and clearly understand what humanitarian organisations can and cannot provide (according to the Red Cross Code of Conduct); and
- A means for communities to voice both positive feedback and criticism to those providing humanitarian assistance, and receive appropriate redress.
To learn more about Codes of Conduct in humanitarian emergency see;
