1.2 Identify key humanitarian actors
Many different actors are involved in humanitarian action (Box 4). The most important actors are the affected communities and individuals. The roles, presence and activities of various actors vary depending on the country context and the type of emergency. Child and adolescent health is central to the work of many humanitarian actors, particularly: government ministries of health, local or international nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies (Box 4).
Box 4 Key humanitarian actors (selected examples only)
Local community
- Health facilities (including private and “traditional” carers who are not part of the health system), schools and their leaders
- Religious, business and other civil society groups and leaders
Government
- Ministries of health (national/state level), other ministries, district health directors
- Military, police and emergency services, child protection services and others
Local nongovernmental organizations
- Many examples
Interagency
- Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) – https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/
- Inter-Agency Working Group on reproductive health in crises (IAWG) – http://iawg.net/
- International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) – https://www.icvanetwork.org/
- International military and peace-keeping forces
- Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) – https://www.schr.info/
United Nations
- Department of Peace Operations (https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/department-of-peace-operations)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – http://www.fao.org/home/en/
- International Organization for Migration (IOM) – https://www.iom.int/
- United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/Home.aspx
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/
- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – https://www.unfpa.org/
- United Nations Programme for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat) – https://unhabitat.org/
- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency – https://www.unhcr.org/
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – https://www.unicef.org/
- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) – https://www.unocha.org/
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – https://www.unrwa.org/
- World Food Programme (WFP) – https://www.wfp.org/
- World Health Organization (WHO) – https://www.who.int/
International nongovernmental organizations
- CARE International – https://www.care-international.org/
- Caritas – https://www.caritas.org/
- Catholic Relief Services – https://www.crs.org/
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – https://www.icrc.org/en; National Red Cross societies
- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) – https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/
- International Medical Corps – https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) – https://www.rescue.org/
- Islamic Relief Worldwide – https://www.islamic-relief.org/
- Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders – https://www.msf.org/
- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – https://www.oic-oci.org/
- Oxfam – https://www.oxfam.org/en
- Save the Children – https://www.savethechildren.net/
- World Vision – https://www.wvi.org/
1.2.1 Roles and responsibilities
Different actors will bring different resources and skills, have different roles, and bear responsibility for different aspects of action.
- UN agencies typically have a coordination role in major humanitarian emergencies, primarily contributing coordination and technical expertise.
- Governments bear the main responsibility for the protection of their population; they typically coordinate and implement humanitarian action, contributing funds, staff and local technical expertise.
- Local community members, nongovernmental organizations and institutions are typically the main providers of humanitarian action, contributing staff and local expertise.
- International nongovernmental organizations are typically involved in the implementation, and sometimes coordination, of particular areas of humanitarian action, contributing staff and technical expertise.
In preparing for and responding to an emergency, international humanitarian actors are expected to cooperate with national authorities and support national capacity wherever it is feasible and appropriate to do so.
1.2.2 Accountability to affected populations
Each actor has unique and valuable contributions to make and can greatly help alleviate suffering during humanitarian crises. However, actors who disregard humanitarian principles and international law can impede humanitarian action and cause more human suffering. Political, military, economic and other interests should never undermine humanitarian principles or international law. Use the core humanitarian standards (15, see Fig. 4) to hold yourselves (and others) accountable.
Above all, humanitarian actors must be accountable to affected populations (Box 5). Accountability to affected populations includes taking account (enabling people to have input in decisions, especially groups at very high risk of the harmful effects of emergencies), giving account (providing information on what you are doing and why), and being held to account (allowing communities to assess the quality of your response).
Box 5 IASC commitments on accountability to affected populations (22)
Leaders of humanitarian organization will commit to the following:
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, training and performance management, partnership agreements, and accountability is 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 dialogue between an organization and its affected populations on information provision.
Feedback and complaints: Actively seek the views of affected populations to improve policy and practice in programming, and ensure that feedback and complaint 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.
Participation: Enable affected populations to play an active role in the decision-making processes that affect them through the establishment of clear guidelines and practices to engage them appropriately and ensure that the most marginalized and affected groups 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, and pass back what has been learnt to the organization on an ongoing basis and report on the results of the process.Key actions – humanitarian actors
- Identify and reach out to partners within your area of action and work to establish common systems and avoid duplication.
- Integrate the Core Humanitarian Standards into your operations and use these to hold yourselves (and others) accountable.
Key indicators – humanitarian actors
- We have identified and connected with the health sector lead agency and partners in our area of work, and are committed to working together.
2 This working group may or may not include reproductive and maternal health (i.e. RMNCAH working group). It may be called a different name. For consistency, RMNCAH/CAH working group is used throughout the operational guide.