The Alliance provides the following capacity strengthening services:

CHS orientation and introductory workshops

A series of “on the ground” orientation events on the CHS will be planned each year for staff of organisations, with particular emphasis given to areas of ongoing crisis or disaster-prone countries. This will consist of two types of events:

• A half-day event to ensure people are aware of the CHS and humanitarian principles in particular
• Two-day training workshops detailing each aspect of the CHS

These will be coordinated with similar activities being undertaken by others such as Sphere.

Training of Trainers on CHS

HAP has offered Training of Trainers (ToT) courses on standards for the past five years and in 2014 began to adapt it programme to the CHS. In 2013, for example, HAP ToT had a ripple effect of more than 3,000 people being trained on standards in just one year. There is currently high demand for this ToT. Each year, the CHS Alliance will offer at least three ToT for 3-5 days on the CHS in diverse locations. It will continue to track how many staff the trained person trained following the ToT and the impact on the ground.

Approved consultants

The Alliance will continue to use a roster of expert consultants and trainers to support its capacity development work. It will build on the existing rosters of “approved” consultants who will work on its behalf in their areas of specialty and to ensure that expertise is accessible across regions and across language groups.

Specialised technical support for key components of the CHS

There are a number of issues linked to the CHS that will require additional capacity support for organisations. The CHS will, therefore, offer technical support and training on the following:

• Feedback mechanisms
• Complaints Response Mechanisms (four days’ training offered)
• Administrative investigations into sensitive complaints such as fraud and corruption and sexual exploitation and abuse (five days’ training offered)
• People management and human resources
• Quality and Accountability Frameworks
• Other areas of the CHS where the Alliance determines, following mapping of existing support, that there is a need for such support

On-site mentoring and accompaniment

The Alliance will continue to have the capacity to deploy staff on the ground at the request of Alliance members, NGOs, or UN agencies. One of the key aims of deployment will be to provide organisations with support to increase the accountability and the quality of their programmes, using the CHS as a supporting tool. The team provides tailored training and advice and facilitates change at the inter-agency level to improve the local capacity to provide quality and accountable aid. This can be in situations of acute emergency or longer-term humanitarian crisis. Each mission can be for one to four weeks, depending on the nature of the request.

Each deployment will include an element of learning and continual improvement appropriate to the context. This can include an after-action review, feedback and recommendations from participating organisations and staff or lessons learned workshops.

Tailored and paid-for capacity support for individual organisations or initiatives

The CHS Alliance will continue to accept requests from members and non-members alike for bespoke capacity development on the CHS, quality, accountability and people management, based on a specific situation and context, to include training, research, benchmarking, Human Resource support or other services.

The Alliance will also develop services in areas where its unique position ensures a viable business. For example: (1) the analysis of 360-degree appraisals of senior staff, which some organisations prefer to have undertaken externally, and; (2) carrying out pre- and post-learning assessments using the tools mentioned above.

The Alliance is often asked to supply or recommend staff for its members. As an alternative to offering recruitment services or offering consultants from within the Alliance, the Alliance plans to develop a small roster of specialists who are experienced in areas such as complaints handling, administrative investigations, developing quality and accountability frameworks, conflict sensitivity in the sector, stress management, conflict in relation to people management, and Human Resource programme establishment in an emergency, among others.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.

The Alliance provides the following support with assessments:

Baseline self-assessment support on quality and accountability

The CHS Alliance provides interested organisations with an assessment of their current practice of quality and accountability against established best practice, either through a detailed facilitated baseline (the equivalent of a pre-audit), or through its range of self-assessment tools. This is undertaken to support an organisation’s self-learning process.

A CHS Verification Scheme

The CHS Alliance will provide a CHS monitoring, reporting and verification framework and will support organisations to address gaps identified in any internal or external verification or certification process.

Funding support for CHS verification

The CHS Alliance is committed to an inclusive CHS Verification process. It will set up a fund to subsidise verification and certification services against the CHS for smaller organisations that may not be able to afford the full costs of the services. This fund will be managed by the CHS Alliance. 

Assessing staff core competencies

The Alliance will continue to promote the Core Humanitarian Competencies Framework, which is being updated in 2015/6. This will assist recruiters and managers to assess people’s learning needs and track progress. Additionally it will, in response to requests from members, develop a set of people-management competencies for Country Directors and similar posts and work with trainers and academics on Human Resource qualifications for managers in the humanitarian sector.

Assessment of learning and development

There is a growing need to justify expenditure on Learning and Development by showing how the learner has changed. The CHS Alliance has a developed a specialised tool. It will be piloted in 2015, and amalgamated with other tools which will apply to different contexts and situations.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.

The CHS Alliance provides the following services related to people management:

Human Resource conferences and related events

Network meetings for Human Resource managers or specialists (rewards, learning and development) will be offered. Some will be face-to-face, some virtual. Each year, the Alliance will continue to host a minimum of two Humanitarian Human Resource (HHR) conferences on different continents. It will further continue to contribute to the development of specialist events it has co-sponsored such as the Global Healthy Workplace and the Training Providers’ Forum.

Talent management and leadership development

As part of its leadership and development, talent management and leadership development will continue to be a strong strand of work for the Alliance. Existing pilot coaching networks in Jordan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya/Ethiopia will be assessed during 2016. When the learning from the pilot coaching networks is incorporated, it will then go global.

Benchmarking staff rewards

The Alliance will continue to offer benchmarking for the sector. The Alliance’s rewards benchmarking has been used in more than 100 countries and will continue to grow. Information will be collected such as benchmarking data from staff engagement surveys and the Human Resource functions (such as the number of human resource staff per 100 employees). This will be captured as part of the Alliance’s ‘intelligent accountability’ approach to people management, offering analysis and not just measurement.

Futures thinking

The Alliance will convene experts from within and without the sector to prepare themselves for the future, on topics included in the CHS. Proposed Centres of Excellence will do this in their specialist areas.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.

The Alliance provides the following policy and advocacy-related services:

Policy formulation, planning and implementation

The CHS Alliance provides advice and assistance to organisations on policy and strategies linked to the application of international standards and good practice. It provides support primarily to members in the formulation of policies and related implementation plans on the delivery of better quality assistance, good people management and greater accountability to vulnerable people and people affected by crisis. With a focus on organisational and staff development it strengthens and supports capacity building for policy analysis, formulation, planning and implementation, at both headquarters and project level. This support will enable organisations and their staff to have a more systematic and consistent approach to standards application, monitoring and evaluation.

Policy analysis and advocacy

The Alliance provides expert policy analysis and will advocate on behalf of its members on issues linked to quality, accountability and people management at national, regional and international forums, with UN and donor agencies and governments.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.

The CHS Alliance provides support to organisations in developing an organisational Quality and Accountability Framework – a management and communications tool – which summarises internal and external standards, codes, guidelines, values and principles to which the organisation has committed and which ensures its accountability to their stakeholders, enabling the delivery of quality programmes. It clearly states the organisation’s commitments, and in particular to vulnerable people and people affected by crisis, and sets out an implementation plan and actions for improvement. This framework can be expanded to cover issues related to accountability, equity, inclusion, people management and conflict sensitivity, among other aspects as relevant to the organisation and context.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.

The CHS Alliance continues to facilitate the Accountability Peer Learning Group (APLG) and support the national accountability working groups and communities of practice including those in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya (Dadaab), Lebanon, and Pakistan that it helped establish. The Alliance also continues to conduct and commission research and consultancies to identify and recognise best practice, improve accountability approaches, develop tools and provide a stronger base for its work. Learning is disseminated through publications, the CHS Alliance website, conferences and workshops.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.

Dedicated tools and resources are being developed in collaboration with members and other key stakeholders to enable staff and organisations better to apply the CHS.

To learn more about our services, visit What We Do.