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The CARE International Humanitarian Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning group


Welcome to the CI Humanitarian MEAL group

The CI Humanitarian MEAL group acts as a reference team to to strengthen CARE’s approach to humanitarian MEAL with the following objectives:

  • Identify, prioritise and address areas of weakness in MEAL in CARE’s humanitarian programmes/responses;
  • Create a Humanitarian MEAL Reference group and through this undertake a mapping of what exists within the organisation, capture and learn from good practice, and build on existing tools, processes, methods and approaches;
  • Produce standard guidelines, templates and tools (including integration with relevant initiatives in the MEL Working Group) and use this to update Chapter 9 of the CARE Emergency Toolkit;
  • Emphasise use of technology and other innovative approaches for effective and efficient MEAL;
  • Disseminate and roll-out resources developed throughout the organisation, including a focus on capacity building for CO staff and ensuring that roster MEAL experts receive orientation.

Full Terms of Reference:2019-01-08_hummeal_wg_tor.docx

For information, please contact: Uwe Korus, Victoria Palmer or Margaux Saillard


Guidance for Creating and Managing Effective Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms (FAM)

CARE is committed to accountable development and humanitarian programming that advances and upholds the rights of the most vulnerable and excluded communities around the world, especially women and girls. We recognise that CARE (as an international organisation) and our partners (through their association with us) hold power derived from our resources, influence and connections. The difference in power between ourselves and our project participants can deter those in vulnerable positions from holding us to account.Therefore Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms (FAMs) must be in place in all areas where CARE operates (including where we operate through partners),to ensure that the opinions of project participants and members of the communities where we operate – including the most marginalised - inform our programming, irrespective of the duration or nature of the intervention (e.g. humanitarian, development, direct implementation, with partners etc.). If operated effectively, a FAM will support CARE and its partners to meet the organization’s goals, values and commitments by ensuring that:

  • Initial steps are taken towards redressing power imbalances and that we are accountable to those we work with and for, by providing opportunities for participants (of all ages, genders and abilities) and partners to influence decision-making. * Our interventions are relevant and appropriate to participants’ needs and aspirations, by identifying changing needs, satisfaction level and inappropriate activities and taking appropriate action. * Our interventions are implemented in a way thatrespects communities and protects their well-being, safety and security, by identifying activities or behaviours which are causing harm and taking appropriate action. * Gender equality and women’s voice are supported, by identifying what is working and not working for women, men, boys and girls and providing opportunities for marginalized community members to voice their opinions and feed into decision-making. * Trust with community members is built and maintained, facilitating implementation and creating a solid relationship with the community upon which to intervene at a deeper level in the future. * Reports of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse are identified and addressed, acting as an early warning system and allowing us to respond and prevent further sexual misconduct or other sensitive issues. * We continually learn and improve the technical quality of our interventions through the feedback we receive and analyse, and our sharing of lessons learned. * We promote safe stewardship of the funding entrusted to us by donors and the public.

How to use this guidance

This guidance outlinesCARE’s standards for setting up and operating a Feedback and Accountability Mechanism (FAM). This guidance includes the following types of resources:

  1. Tools: practical templates that can be adapted to different operating contexts and used in managing the FAM;
  2. Guidance: further suggestions and tips on a specific area related to setting up, using or improving a FAM;
  3. Examples: resources already used in one of Care’s country offices;
  4. Hyperlinks to further readings that can aid some of the processes described in this guidance.

Whilst we always adapt our interventions to the context where we operate, programmatic realities and constraints,the FAM standards outlined in this document are applicable universally across all of CARE’s interventions, in both development and humanitarian programming.Whether programming is led by us or by our partners,

This guidance has been principally authored by a small team(including Moiez Ahmed, Laura Hughston, Uwe Korus, Victoria Palmer, Meagan Patterson and Margaux Saillard) and draws from practical experiences in establishing and learning form feedback mechanisms in a range of settings and in developing policies and procedures for creating safe and inclusive processes. Throughout the writing of this guidance, the content and approach has benefited from extensive inputs from CARE staff from across the federation. The authors would like to extend our gratitude to the many CARE Country Offices who made their experiences and tools available for this guidance.

This guidance document therefore offers an insight into current good practice in both the development and humanitarian sectors and were informed by a range of global debates and initiatives to foster greater accountability. The HUM MEAL WG will howeverseek to continually improve this guidance and draw more on the practice and learning from CARE teams across the world.

We recognise that attaining excellence in our daily practice of accountability will required more than just this guidance. Sustained commitment, resourcing and honest reflection grounded in our experience and continued innovation will be required. In this spirit we commit to continuing supporting those across the CARE federation devoted to creating, operating and improving FAMs. Queries and requests for support should be directed to: CIFAMSupport@careinternational.org.

humanitarian_meal_working_group.1579617796.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/01/21 16:43 by uwe.korus