Quality and Accountability

ACT Alliance is committed to humanitarian and development work that is people-centred, principled, and accountable. Quality and accountability sit at the heart of our collective effort to uphold the rights, dignity, and participation of the communities we serve.

The ACT Quality and Accountability Framework 2025 brings our shared commitments, standards, and policies together into a coherent system. It defines the responsibilities of ACT members, the ACT Secretariat, and ACT governance, while fostering a culture of continuous learning, transparency, and mutual accountability.

As a global alliance of over 160 members working across diverse contexts, ACT strengthens quality through common standards, collaboration, and shared capacity. We promote recognised humanitarian standards – including the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) and Sphere – to support consistent, high-quality, and accountable programming.

Our approach to due diligence goes beyond compliance. By combining risk-informed assessments with capacity strengthening, peer learning, and continuous improvement, we help members build confidence, meet donor expectations, and lead effective, locally driven humanitarian responses.

Our goals

  • Strengthen Quality and Accountability Promote a culture of quality, accountability, and continuous improvement across the Alliance through common policies, standards, and shared learning – ensuring communities remain at the centre of all humanitarian and development action.
  • Promote Risk-Informed and Enabling Harmonized Due Diligence Implement a proportionate, risk-based due diligence passporting approach that builds confidence, reduces risk, and expands opportunities for members – ensuring due diligence enables participation and locally led action rather than creating unnecessary barriers.
  • Build Member Capacity and Readiness Support members in strengthening organisational systems through capacity sharing and peer learning, using due diligence findings to shape practical improvement plans that enable long-term organisational growth.
  • Advance Humanitarian Standards and Compliance Champion the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), Sphere, and ACT policies to strengthen safeguarding, complaints mechanisms, financial integrity, and accountability to affected populations – supporting members in applying recognised standards through continuous improvement.
  • Foster Trust and Responsible Stewardship Strengthen transparency, ethical practice, and responsible resource management across the Alliance, building confidence among communities, members, donors, and partners through consistent accountability and effective governance.

Key Achievements

01

Strengthened ACT’s Quality and Accountability Framework – Revised and implemented the ACT Quality and Accountability Framework, aligning governance, membership, and operational accountability while reinforcing compliance with mandatory policies.

02

Advanced Due Diligence and Member Readiness – Established the Due Diligence Working Group and developed ACT’s Due Diligence Tool and Passporting Framework to strengthen risk management, capacity development, and funding readiness.

03

Promoted Humanitarian Quality Standards – Completed the CHS Self-Assessment Pilot with 14 members, generating insights that inform continuous improvement and reinforce ACT’s commitment to the Core Humanitarian Standard.

04

Expanded Capacity Strengthening and Learning – Delivered regional and global learning initiatives on quality, accountability, safeguarding, and complaints handling, while enhancing digital learning through ACT Learn and updated e-learning courses available here: https://fabo.org/act.

05

Enhanced Monitoring, Compliance, and Partnerships – Strengthened compliance oversight through the Membership Portal and CHS Compliance Action Plan, improved monitoring systems, and expanded collaboration with CHS Alliance, Sphere, Groupe URD, and Fabo ACT Learn.

Humanitarian standards are our Standards

ACT Alliance is certified against CHS to ensure that Upholds a high standard in protecting the rights and dignity of the Communities we serve.

READ MORE

Highlights

ACT Mandatory Policies, Standards and Commitments

Alliance's Innovative Mentorship for Greater CHS Impact

ACT Due Diligence Passporting Landing Page (Fabo.org)

act alliance logo

Thematic areas

ACT Alliance is committed to demonstrating accountability in every aspect of its work.
The ACT Quality and Accountability Framework summarises standards of quality towards which the ACT governing bodies, ACT members and the ACT secretariat can be held to account by our stakeholders, and by each other. It states ACT’s primary commitments and sets out an implementation plan and actions for improvement. It seeks to ensure that members have mechanisms of accountability to beneficiaries.

The ACT Alliance Complaints Policy is managed by the ACT Secretariat. Its purpose is to:

  • Recognise, promote and protect ACT stakeholder rights, including the right to raise a concern and/or complain in good faith about breaches or non-compliance to the ACT Alliance Code of Conduct and/or the Code of Good Practice;
  • Set out roles, responsibilities and timeframes on handling of complaints and provide clear policy guidance for responding to and resolving complaints against ACT members, staff of members,  contractors, consultants, the ACT Secretariat staff, the ACT Secretariat;
  • Ensure a consistent mechanism to hold ACT members,  staff of members, the Secretariat staff and the ACT Secretariat accountable in terms of their behaviour and compliance with ACT standards and policies; 
  • Provide a confidential, safe, efficient and transparent mechanism for stakeholders to raise a concern or complaint about the work of an ACT member if that member does not have yet its own complaints policy in place;
  • Ensure that ACT learns from all situations in order to strive for high quality and continuous improvement in ACT’s humanitarian, development and advocacy work; 
  • Increase the level of stakeholder satisfaction with the work of the ACT Alliance.

Read the full Complaint policy here

(CHS) sets out Nine Commitments that organisations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. The CHS places communities and people affected by crisis at the centre of humanitarian action. As a core standard, the CHS describes the essential elements of principled, accountable and high-quality humanitarian aid. It is a voluntary and measurable standard. The CHS is the result of a global consultation process. It draws together key elements of existing humanitarian standards and commitments.  (ref : https://corehumanitarianstandard.org/the-standard)

The ACT Alliance Secretariat is certified against the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability, and a copy of the re-certification audit 2021 is available here.

 

The Sphere movement was started in 1997 by a group of humanitarian professionals aiming to improve the quality of humanitarian work during disaster response. With this goal in mind, they framed a Humanitarian Charter and identified a set of humanitarian standards to be applied in humanitarian response.

Initially developed by non-governmental organisations, along with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the Sphere standards have become a primary reference tool for national and international NGOs, volunteers, UN agencies, governments, donors, the private sector, and many others. Today, Sphere is a worldwide community which brings together and empowers practitioners to improve the quality and accountability of humanitarian assistance.

Sphere’s flagship publication, the Sphere Handbook, is one of the most widely known and internationally recognised sets of common principles and universal minimum standards in humanitarian response. (ref: https://spherestandards.org/about/)

 

In its efforts to contribute to effective prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, the ACT Secretariat has endorsed the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response’s Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. Through this endorsement, the ACT Secretariat is committed to systematically check with previous employers about any misconduct issues relating to sexual exploitation and abuse by potential new hires and to systematically respond to such checks from others. 

Latest News

MORE NEWS

Latest News

MORE NEWS

Team and structures

Rizwan Iqbal

Global Accountability and Safeguarding Coordinator

Global

Rizwan.Iqbal@actalliance.org

Amman, Jordan

Join our network in 127 countries

BECOME A MEMBER