The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) is a globally recognized voluntary standard setting out nine commitments that organizations and individuals involved in humanitarian response use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. Because accountability is one of Medical Teams’ core organizational values, we strive to integrate each of the nine commitments into our delivery of humanitarian assistance. Here is a brief overview of Core Humanitarian Standard Commitment 6 and a video providing insight into how Medical Teams incorporates CHS Commitment 6 into our global operations.

Commitment 6: Communities and people affected by crisis receive coordinated and complementary assistance

Adequate program coverage and timely, effective humanitarian responses require collective action across a diverse group of stakeholders, including local actors, humanitarian organizations, local authorities, ministries of health, and private companies. Coordination is essential to preventing the duplication of efforts which wastes already limited resources. The sharing of information and knowledge between stakeholders, joint planning and integrated activities can also ensure that organizations manage risk better and improve the outcomes of a response. To support a well coordinated and complementary response, aid organizations should:

• Identify the roles, responsibilities, capacities and interests of different stakeholders.
• Ensure the humanitarian response complements that of national and local authorities and other humanitarian organizations.
• Participate in relevant coordination bodies and collaborate with others in order to minimize demands on communities and maximize the coverage and service provision of the wider humanitarian effort.
• Share necessary information with partners, coordination groups and other relevant actors through appropriate communication channels.

Collaboration and, where possible, the sharing of resources and equipment, optimizes the capacity of communities, host governments, donors and humanitarian agencies with different mandates and expertise. Local organizations and civil society networks, as well as existing national coordination mechanisms, can also provide a significant amount of context-specific knowledge and experience that can be leveraged to deliver a more effective and appropriate response.

In the following video, we discuss how Medical Teams integrates CHS Commitment 6 into our programs in Sudan and Uganda.

Learn more from the Core Humanitarian Standard and CHS Alliance websites as well as our other posts on CHS commitments. The information on Core Humanitarian Standard Commitment 6 and its key actions in this post are summarized from the Core Humanitarian Standard and CHS guidance notes.

Jenny Perry
Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Advisor

Jenny contributes to the calling of Medical Teams International through the development and implementation of a global strategy, systems and tools for evidence-based monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning programs and supports country office teams to integrate these activities throughout all phases of the project life cycle. Connect with her on LinkedIn.