Humanitarian organizations and professionals think about accountability all the time. I get annoyed when people outside the field call for “greater accountability” without any awareness of what already exists and what is happening within the field.

Tomorrow the Social Science Research Council is hosting a talk on the “accountability of humanitarian organizations” as a part of their ongoing "The Transformations of Humanitarian Action" Seminar Series. I won’t be at tomorrow’s session (go to New York for a talk I’m not giving? Not likely), but I have seen the papers. They open some nice cans of worms, just as such papers ought.

The papers for all past sessions are on the web and make interesting reading if you’re into that sort of thing.

And of ongoing interest is the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, a multi-agency effort to develop and maintain minimum standards.