HUM 003 People received humanitarian assistance in a safe and accessible manner

This indicator should be used and reported in all humanitarian response projects. It is designed to help ensure that protection measures are effectively integrated into the project by providing a way to identify, implement, and track the necessary corrective actions.

Safe: Assistance prevents and minimizes as much as possible any unintended negative effects of the intervention which can increase people’s vulnerability to both physical and psychosocial risks. 

Satisfactory manner: Aid is provided ensuring people’s access to assistance and services – in proportion to need and without any barriers (e.g. discrimination); and pay special attention to individual beneficiaries and groups who may be particularly vulnerable or have difficulty accessing assistance and services. 

Accountable: Aid agencies use power responsibly through an active commitment to include the people affected by humanitarian crises in decision-making. Agencies establish appropriate mechanisms through which affected populations can measure the adequacy of interventions and address concerns and complaints. 

Participatory: Beneficiaries and affected populations have been involved in the different stages of the activity, including needs assessment, activity design, response, and monitoring; specific mechanisms are in place to enable beneficiaries and affected populations to provide feedback and complaints. Assistance supports the development of self-protection capacities and assists people to claim their rights. 

• Gender 

• Age  

• Left behind/vulnerable population group  

Percentage of people who recieved assistance through HELVETAS

Survey (in most cases as a post-distribution monitoring PDM) with a representative sample of primary stakeholders. 
 
Focus group discussions (or other qualitative data gathering alternatives) can be useful to provide details about the context and perceptions of respondents but shouldn’t be used for the survey. 

This indicator will be monitored throughout project implementation (e.g. periodically or after distribution of assistance) as its aim is to identify corrective actions to be taken promptly to improve the quality of programming.

DG ECHO has designed a survey tool / method of verification for this indicator, which consists of a questionnaire with a set of questions to be asked to primary stakeholders, as well as a methodology to aggregate the data collected and ease the analysis and reporting. The survey consists of eight questions which reflects the four elements of protection mainstreaming.  
 
The survey should ideally be conducted through one-on-one interviews, either on paper or electronically on a handheld device (though sometimes, participants may fill it out themselves). It's important that the interviewers come from diverse backgrounds and have proper training. Ideally, the interviewers should not be the same people who interact with participants daily, as this can reduce bias in the responses and encourage participants to feel more comfortable and honest in their answers. 
 
To determine how many primary stakeholders should be included in the survey, aim for a sample size that provides a 95% confidence level with a 5% margin of error. However, if it’s challenging to meet this standard due to factors like security risks or other limitations, and if you plan to collect data more frequently, you can increase the margin of error to a maximum of 10%. Keep in mind that increasing the margin of error may limit the accuracy of the data when analyzing smaller subgroups. 

Challenge: Accurately capturing the subjective experience of the assistance, which can vary widely across different contexts and individuals. 

Approach: Ensure that the survey questions are clear, and provide examples or explanations where necessary. Consider cultural and contextual factors that may influence responses and address these in the analysis. 

ECHO (Key Outcome Indicator): 

% of beneficiaries (disaggregated by sex, age, and disability) reporting that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner 

USAID: 

M03:  Percent of beneficiaries reporting that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner 

UN CERF: 

AP.5b Percentage of affected people who state that they were able to access humanitarian assistance and services in a safe, accessible, accountable and participatory manner 

• HUM 001 Number of people enabled to cover most pressing emergency basic needs by cash or in-kind assistance

• HUM 002 Percentage of affected people who state that the assistance, services and/or protection provided correspond with their needs

• HUM 004 Percentage of costs for primary stakeholders transferred through cash/voucher modality

• HUM 005 Number of people having access to basic, safe and dignified shelters solutions

• HUM 006 Number of people provided with resources that enable them to protect and start rebuilding livelihood assets

• HUM 007 Number of people who have gained equitable and affordable access to a sufficient quantity of safe water to meet their drinking and domestic needs

• HUM 008 Number of people who have adequate, appropriate and acceptable toilets to allow rapid, safe and secure access at all times

• HUM 009 Number of displaced persons and vulnerable host community members with increased Self-Reliance score over the course of the project