Principles for Humanitarian Action

Video: Principles for Humanitarian Action (PHA)


 

IOM's PHA: A Policy for the Field

By William Lacy Swing, IOM Director General

Last year we embarked on a pivotal process of defining IOM’s actions vis-à-vis the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality and to have them embedded in a policy – IOM’s Principles for Humanitarian Action (PHA).

We are dealing with the complexity and surge of today’s simultaneous crises, from ISIS in Iraq and Syria to Boko Haram in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, to the increase in ‘desperation migration’ and migrant fatalities en route to developed countries.

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IOM Revolving Livestock Scheme. A mother and child stand outside of a hut housing goats provided to them under the Revolving Livestock Project, Zimbabwe. © IOM/Will Van Engen 2009

Durable Solutions: Visible and Invisible Successes in Zimbabwe

By Rangarirayi Tigere
Monitoring and Evaluation and Training Coordinator, IOM Zimbabwe

Despite displacement being a highly politicised topic in Zimbabwe, IOM’s Community Based Planning (CBM) approach to displacement has been an unprecedented success. Here are some of the reasons for that success.

Unlike much of Africa where civil wars and natural disasters have resulted in major population displacements, internal displacement in Zimbabwe has been primarily caused by the Government’s accelerated land reform programme which began in the year 2000, followed by natural disasters, urban evictions and political violence. The consequence: hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, disadvantaged in their access to livelihoods and services, their poor standards of living and their exclusion from civic life.

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IOM staff distributing in-kind grant items to a beneficiary in Basra, Iraq. © IOM 2015

Lessons from Humanitarian Practitioners: "Peer Accountability"

By Angharad Laing
Executive Director
Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection

Over the past decade, there have been important moves to improve accountability in humanitarian response. However, in order to further increase overall effectiveness in humanitarian action and ensure that humanitarian actors carry out their actions responsibly, we need to bring into the discussion the concept of the accountability of the individual – in particular through what we call "peer accountability."

Among humanitarian actors, accountability is often understood as the process of using power responsibly. One of the important accountability relationships in this context is that between humanitarian actors and affected people.

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