Humanitarians Gather in Kabul to Address Quality And
Accountability in Afghanistan
March 12, 2008 - Kabul, Afghanistan

By Stacey M. Winston,
CWS-P/A - Regional Communications And Marketing Consultant

Amidst the snow-capped mountains surrounding Kabul, a group of over 40 humanitarian workers, government officials, donors, foreign dignitaries and researchers gathered together to discuss quality and accountability for humanitarian interventions in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is at the forefront of the geopolitical issues and lately, news surrounding the country is focused on security, reconstruction and development. With billions of dollars in aid money being poured into Afghanistan – the question often asked is how is the money being spent and are the people benefiting? A recent report published by the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) indicates ‘an estimated 40% of the money spent has been returned to rich donor countries…through corporate profits, consultant salaries and other costs, vastly pushing up expenditure,’ which can lead to questions regarding the effectiveness of aid in Afghanistan.

In an effort to address such pertinent questions, Groupe Urgence Rehabilitation Developpement (Groupe URD) and Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A) in partnership with the Government of Afghanistan and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP), convened a workshop on humanitarian quality and accountability to present lessons learned and discuss the challenges ahead.

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The primary objectives for this workshop are: 1) To generate interest in quality and accountability in humanitarian interventions in Afghanistan; 2) To think about and eventually draft a shared definition of ‘quality’ in the Afghan context and; 3) To generate dialogue between donor agencies, the United Nations, international and national organizations on quality and accountability in humanitarian interventions in Afghanistan, and address particularly how donors can influence the quality of humanitarian aid.

According to Peggy Pascal of Groupe URD, she says, “we have seen that in the recent years the state is in the building process and many things have changed…aid has to be at the right pace to build the capacity and the money is to be spent in an efficient and effective manner.” Pascal’s URD colleague, Veronique de Geoffrey adds, “The way to work toward quality should lie in participatory methods. We need to involve the people in decision-making and monitoring and evaluation…which will increase quality of aid to the people.”

A representative of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Agency (ANDMA) candidly stated, ‘the main responsibility (for disaster response) lies with the government not with the UN and aid agencies.” Mr. Habib added, “The role of the government of Afghanistan in disasters is coordination. He goes on to tackle what he says, ‘the most important needs are disaster preparedness and disaster response at the provincial level and a lack of early warning is the most critical issue missing.”

In order to provide quality and accountability in any country, government organizations and the humanitarian community must work together. Furthermore, Mr. Habib explained a shift in thinking taking place from the government perspective, and the stride for progress being made at the national and provincial level in disaster response. “If we look at the minimum standards of Sphere--did we implement that minimum standard? Mr. Habib asks, “We need to look to that in disaster response…and we need to think about the quality of relief.”

After panel presentations and discussion, the participants organized in small groups to share experiences and pose solutions on how to improve the quality of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and defining ‘what is quality in aid in Afghanistan?’ Donor and government accountability influence in the quality of aid was also a topic of discussion.

“It’s a good initiative of quality and accountability in the humanitarian aspect, but it can not be solved in one workshop…there’s a long way to go…what we can do is inform people, states Naseer Ayanee, The United States Government Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration’s refugee specialist for Afghanistan. “The more we have involvement of other humanitarian actors, the more we can resolve the issues of coordination, intervention and information sharing and lessons learned,” Ayanee concludes.

At the end of the day, participants expressed that as a humanitarian community, quality and accountability must be a priority in each phase of humanitarian interventions. ‘We are all partners for providing services to the poor people of Afghanistan, explains Nejabat Safi, Associate Director for CWS-P/A, “so we need mechanisms to be accountable to all stakeholders, especially the beneficiaries,” Safi concludes.

In order for Afghans to rebuild their homeland, being accountable to all throughout the relief and development process is essential, and challenging, but not impossible.