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Local organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean are working in increasingly complex environments, with connected crises – economic instability, migration flows, climate impacts, and social tensions. These dynamics put growing pressure on already limited resources and raise expectations for accountability and transparency.

Earlier this year local members of the ACT Alliance in Latin America and the Caribbean took part in a CHS verification pilot project, receiving technical assistance and financial support to carry out a self-assessment for the first time.

Following a call for expressions of interest and a selection process based on clear criteria, five organisations were selected to participate:

• Comisión de Acción Social Menonita (Honduras)
• Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba
• Centro Cristiano de Reflexión y Diálogo-Cuba
• Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Colombia
• Centro Intereclesial de Estudios Teológicos y Sociales (Nicaragua)

The organisations recently took part in a webinar to share their experience of the CHS self-assessment process. The group explained the highlights and challenges of the past few months, and where they see CHS verification taking them in the future.

Amparo Peña from Comisión de Acción Social Menonita spoke about how the self-assessment has helped highlight and celebrate strong areas such as community connections, motivated staff, and clear organisational values, as well as addressing areas for improvement.

Peña says “The benefits are incredible and highly relevant. It helped show us where we have major strengths in some areas, within our institutions and within our processes, policies, and procedures.  It also allowed us to identify gaps that were not always visible on a day-to-day basis—issues that came to light, such as PSEAH in emergencies, humanitarian conflicts, or humanitarian action.”

“Often when we are responding, it can appear our actions are not going to cause any harm at the time of the intervention. This process allowed us to see those gaps.”

ACT Alliance is a faith-based network, and a central theme that emerged in the self-assessment process was the connection between faith, values, and accountability. Members reflected that the two tied well together and CHS was a natural extension of a core mission to act with dignity, justice, and integrity, in particular when dealing with communities. This is an area that provided especially fruitful results:

“The process prompted of course, internal reflection”, Peña continues, “ but also reflection on our work with communities, because we heard interesting questions from communities directly.How do we identify and articulate these policies internally, and how is this made visible at the community level?

These allowed us to draft improvement plans and gave us the impetus to address pending issues such as our complaints mechanism, how we protect against abuse, and how we learn. This generated an institutional learning process.”

Speaking as a group, participants outlined 5 core lessons they learned through the self-assessment process

• Working with communities – while most organisations already maintained close ties with communities, the participants found more structured and consistent approaches ensured more meaningful engagement.
• Feedback mechanisms – although in place, the process demonstrated a need to build confidence and trust with communities in order to ensure efficacy.
• Safeguarding: Throughout the process it became evident that embedding Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) into daily practice was vital, rather than viewing it as a separate issue
• Learning and adaptation: Participants shared their belief that continuous improvement demands systematic reflection and follow-up on lessons learned
• Staff well-being: Organisations emphasised the need to invest more in staff training, safety, and psychosocial support.

Looking ahead: sustaining momentum

For many of the organisations, this first self-assessment has laid the foundation for a stronger culture of accountability. The CHS is not simply a Standard to comply with, but a living framework that strengthens the mission and enhances the quality of service to communities.

The next challenge will be to implement their improvement plans and maintain momentum beyond the initial exercise. What matters most, participants agreed, is sustaining the commitment to continuous improvement.

But this is about more than systems: the CHS is about recognising people as rights-holders, listening to their perspectives, and ensuring they have a voice in decisions that affect their lives.

 As Peña concludes “This process reinforced our motivation and commitment, reminding us why we do this work and asking us how we can do it better. It challenged us to say why are we doing this? And who are we directing our work towards?”