Global consultation on humanitarian standards moves into top gear Make your voice heard!

Participants at a focus group discussion on humanitarian standards in Paris, 18 January 2013.

An online survey has been widely circulated in four languages, focus group discussions are taking place across the globe and regional consultation events start this week. Here are some of the ways you can participate before the end of the month:

Some 640 field and headquarter staff have already taken part in the online survey. Share your views and encourage your colleagues to do the same by responding to the 10-minute survey for humanitarian workers in either Arabic, English, French and Spanish.

Focus Group Discussions are happening with agencies, donors, governments and affected populations in places as far afield as India, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Italy, London, France and Geneva, with many more planned over the next three weeks.

The discussions are focusing on the key lines of enquiry: use and accessibility of standards, implementation of standards, compliance and verification and future needs.

Why not organise a focus group discussion yourself? Detailed and simple guidelines on how to do this are available for download in .

Regional Consultation events are occurring in regional hubs over the next few weeks. Keep up to date with what’s happening near you and how to be involved by visiting the JointStandards.org website.

The Consultation team is happy to provide additional guidance and support. Please send questions and queries to Lois Austin.

The Joint Standards Initiative is a collaborative process set up by three humanitarian standards-setting initiatives: the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) International, People In Aid and the Sphere Project. Its goal is to seek greater coherence for users of standards in order to improve humanitarian response.