Beyond Verification: Embracing Certification for Greater Impact

Insights of Dutch Relief Alliance, Help a Child, and Tearfund Netherlands

Credit: Early childhood development in Kirundo, Burundi. Photo by Aristide Muco. Help a Child.

Credit: Early childhood development in Kirundo, Burundi. Photo by Aristide Muco. Help a Child.

Interview with Anton van Wijk, Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) Board of Directors Liaison, Geert de Jonge, Help a Child Manager Expertise & Development, and Guido de Vries, Tearfund Netherlands Director, about their transfer from Independent Verification to Certification options.

In the ever-changing landscape of humanitarian and development work, it is crucial to ensure quality and accountability. Independent verification and certification options play a pivotal role in establishing trust and demonstrating a commitment to ethical and impactful practices.

These interviews dive deep into the experiences of two renowned Dutch organisations - Help a Child and Tearfund Netherlands - as they transitioned from independent verification to certification against the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) while being members of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA). Their journeys offer valuable insights for any organisation seeking to strengthen its accountability and transparency practices.

Discover How These Organisations Are Making a Difference

Help a Child, a Christian non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering children and families living in poverty, has been certified against the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) for its humanitarian and development mandate since 2024.

Tearfund Netherlands, another Christian non-profit organisation focused on alleviating poverty and injustice, has obtained CHS certification since 2023 for their humanitarian and development mandate.

The Dutch Relief Alliance  is a coalition of 14 NGOs that have joined forces to provide humanitarian assistance to people and communities the world over. By aligning their efforts, they are able to respond to an acute crisis within 72 hours. Working in partnership with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the alliance strives to enhance the impact of the humanitarian efforts of international, national and local NGOs.

Beyond the Individual: Collective Impact

Before making CHS third-party quality assurance mandatory for members of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA), were you already using the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS)? If yes, how?

"We see the CHS as the Core standard for quality and accountability for humanitarian work."
Anton van Wijk, Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) Board of Directors Liaison, February 2024

How was this decision received by the members of The Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA)?

The DRA is an Alliance. Our Partners jointly have taken the decision to require third-party quality monitoring for our current strategic period (2022-2026).

How do you utilise the results of the CHS audits?

DRA partner organisations use them to work on improvement plans. For multiple partners, this already resulted in receiving the CHS certificate. We are considering if, at one point, we can also combine and compare the results of the CHS audits of our partners to identify and consider taking joint action for improvements.

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"The process to achieve certification has been very helpful. We now have a clearer understanding of where systems, policies and practices are strong and effective and where further improvement is needed. The detailed, incisive audit report has helped us to improve. The entire process was an excellent opportunity to put the CHS at the forefront of the entire organisation and realign our activities and procedures accordingly. The CHS motivates us to walk the extra mile when it comes to meeting the highest quality standards."
Geert de Jonge, Help a Child Manager Expertise & Development, February 2024

Credit: In East Rukum district, Nepal, Tearfund works on strengthening communities by restoring or conserving natural resources, improving sustainable agriculture and livelihoods, and developing entrepreneurship. 2022. Photo by Lloyd Kinsley. Tearfund Netherlands.

Credit: In East Rukum district, Nepal, Tearfund works on strengthening communities by restoring or conserving natural resources, improving sustainable agriculture and livelihoods, and developing entrepreneurship. 2022. Photo by Lloyd Kinsley. Tearfund Netherlands.

Credit: Widelande (18) and her brother Fenand (16) proudly show off their harvest of beans in Haiti. Both participated in Tearfund’s horticulture program for youth and learned how to grow different crops. In addition to beans, all kinds of other vegetables also grow on the land next to their home. 2023. Tearfund Netherlands.

Credit: Widelande (18) and her brother Fenand (16) proudly show off their harvest of beans in Haiti. Both participated in Tearfund’s horticulture program for youth and learned how to grow different crops. In addition to beans, all kinds of other vegetables also grow on the land next to their home. 2023. Tearfund Netherlands.

Credit: Brenda, one of Help a Child community ambassadors from Busia, Kenya. 2023. Photo by Jeroen van Loon. Help a Child.

Credit: Brenda, one of Help a Child community ambassadors from Busia, Kenya. 2023. Photo by Jeroen van Loon. Help a Child.

Credit: Bravin, one of Help a Child community ambassadors from Busia, Kenya. 2023. Photo by Jeroen van Loon. Help a Child.

Credit: Bravin, one of Help a Child community ambassadors from Busia, Kenya. 2023. Photo by Jeroen van Loon. Help a Child.


Motivations for Certification

Why did you decide to go from independently verified to certified?

Help a Child: The most important pillar of our strategic plan is achieving more quality and impact. Our reason for existence is to provide a future for children in need. We do our utmost to accomplish this, and quality is our driving force. To aim for certification shows the world that we take our commitment seriously. Being part of a select group of professional organisations that meet this highest standard motivates us to continue to live up to this ambition. The yearly maintenance audit of certification gives us an extra external drive to make it a continuous priority.

Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) has made CHS third-party quality assurance mandatory for its members. How did your organisation perceive this decision?

Tearfund NL: Quality is one of the objectives, and setting a goal for the members to be CHS third-party quality assurance by 2023 was a good quality move.

Continuous Improvement: A Journey, not a Destination

Can you tell us more about your HQAI certification journey?

Help a Child: We started our CHS journey in 2019 with our first self-assessment, and we repeated this in 2022. Both of these self-assessments have resulted in improvement plans for the organisation, pushing us to develop more effective and quality aid. In 2023, we have done the external audit, and the reflections of the auditors have helped us to grow further. Looking back at this journey, we really improved in quality in, for example, Community Based Feedback, Knowledge Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Partnership Management and communication with communities.

Tearfund NL: Journey is the right term here. We began working with the CHS in 2019 with a self-assessment. It was important for us to embark on this journey together, so we involved our team as well as Tearfund UK and our local partners. 

Navigating the Path: Challenges and Rewards

What were the challenges you encountered?

Help a Child: The investment of time and resources in the external audit was challenging but outweighed the benefits of identifying sharp and critical ways of improvement. As a relatively small NGO, the CHS pushed us far but also opened up new avenues for further funding by larger donors, enabling us to provide more impact for more children in need.

Tearfund NL: As we started working with the CHS, we gained new insights and knowledge. One of the things we discovered was that we needed to improve how we handle feedback and complaints at the community level. Initially, we recognised this need as a small step towards better understanding our responsibilities. However, we soon realised that it was a larger step to ensure that all our country programs and partners follow these guidelines.

The Benefits of Accountability: Transformative Outcomes

What are the benefits of undergoing a CHS audit for your member organisations?

DRA: Being forced to, in a structured way, look at policies, procedures and practices that influence the delivery of humanitarian assistance with quality and accountability in a consistent manner. Including the perspective of people affected by how they experience aid provision is a key added value here.

What specific improvements have you seen?

Help a Child: Community-Based Feedback: In 2019, this was a completely new topic for us. We have always invited the communities to share their feedback, but now we have been able to set up a clear mechanism for channelling this feedback and responding to that feedback. This is a noticeable improvement at Help a Child, from the policy level to the field level.

Knowledge Management: In 2018, during a synthesis evaluation of all our projects, we realised that just creating high-quality policy documents is not enough. It is all about ensuring we reach the hearts and minds of our field staff so that they understand and live by our philosophy. We introduced all kinds of training, information exchange, and e-learning and started with Knowledge Management as an essential pillar in our organisation.

Disaster Risk Reduction: Up to 2019, we were organised in silos: one silo for development programmes and one silo for disaster response. As an important discourse, Triple Nexus came up in our sector, and CHS pushed us to connect development with disaster response. This resulted in more attention to Disaster Risk Reduction in our development programmes and more sustainability and empowerment approaches in disaster response.

Partnership Management: With CHS's support, we have improved equal partner relationships and become more transparent in our relationship with our implementing partners. Our multi-annual contracts changed accordingly, and we have further invested in our relationship with our implementing partners.

Communication with communities: during the external audit in 2023, we realised we need to improve on the intensity and quality of our communication to our beneficiaries, explaining who Help a Child is as the donor behind our implementing partners and what integrity means to us. In the coming years, we want to improve the quality of this topic further. 

Collaborating with Auditors: An Insightful Experience

What was your experience of collaborating with the HQAI auditors?

Help a Child: The auditors were incisive and analytically proficient, directing our organisation to the right points and ensuring that this did not feel like a paper audit but really contributed to clear areas of improvement at the policy and field levels. We appreciated their support and their push to further improve our quality.

Tearfund NL: Very positive! They were very friendly, and we felt they were, from their roles in the process, passionate about making organisations grow!

Unlocking New Possibilities: How CHS certification elevates Donor Expectations

What are the expectations from donors now that you will be CHS certified? Do you think they will change?

Tearfund Netherland: Good question! We believe it is a vital quality mark, but we will need to find out how this influences donors' perceptions.

Help a Child: We expect more and more donors to adopt the CHS standard and, by doing so, increase the level of CHS compliance. For us, CHS is the highest quality standard, and by adhering to it, we see possibilities to further diversify our donor portfolio by adhering to the highest compliance requests. 

Beyond Borders, Beyond Audits: The Tearfund Family Advantage

Tearfund Netherlands is part of the Tearfund family, with one organisation already certified. How does this impact the audit process, and have you benefited from it?

Tearfund NL: Yes, very much. Tearfund UK supported our process through training and we work together intensively in providing Quality Standards and CHS training to our shared partners. 

"One of the most significant developments that we’ve witnessed as Tearfund Netherlands and our partners is that we now place a greater emphasis on the quality of our work. We’re pleased to report that we’ve made noteworthy progress, particularly in terms of community accountability and the implementation of key policies that enable us to carry out our work more effectively."
Guido de Vries, Tearfund Netherlands Director, February 2024

The Final Word: Embracing the Future of Accountability

The stories of Help a Child, Tearfund Netherlands showcase the transformative power of certification. As the humanitarian landscape evolves, embracing this robust system offers organisations a powerful tool to navigate the complexities of our world and deliver lasting impact for those who need it most.

Ready to Embrace Certification?

HQAI offers various options to meet CHS commitments: Benchmarking, Independent Verification, and Certification, catering to organisations at different stages of their accountability journey.

  • Benchmarking: Benchmarking is a one-time independent and objective assessment of compliance with CHS, best practices, or commitments.
  • Independent Verification: Provides organisations with an external, independent assessment of ability and improvement against the CHS.
  • Certification: Offers organisations a forensic diagnostic of the degree to which they have applied the CHS.

Credit: Claire Goudsmit, a senior auditor at HQAI, is consulting with a group of female program participants for an INGO in the Somali Region of Ethiopia near Jijiga.

Credit: Claire Goudsmit, a senior auditor at HQAI, is consulting with a group of female program participants for an INGO in the Somali Region of Ethiopia near Jijiga.