Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) is a core humanitarian commitment and set of practices that place people at the centre of decision-making. It emphasises the importance of engaging with and being accountable to the populations served and ensuring intervention methods are dignified, effective and mindful.
We assessed how well UNICEF embedded AAP commitments and practices across its humanitarian and development programmes from 2020 to 2025. We generated actionable insights and recommendations to advance UNICEF’s AAP in humanitarian programming.
The findings also contributed to broader efforts within the humanitarian community to enhance accountability and ensure that aid is delivered in a manner that respects and empowers those it is intended to help.
UNICEF’s AAP Strategy
As part of its 2022-2025 AAP Strategy, UNICEF developed a Monitoring Framework to track progress against four strategic objectives, using six strategic indicators.
Central to all of these objectives and indicators is the UNICEF goal of:
“ensuring that affected children and families participate in the decisions that affect their lives, are properly informed and consulted, and have their views acted upon.”
Essential to this goal is robust and effective feedback mechanisms, community engagement, capacity development and a useful monitoring and evaluation processes.
Our role
By identifying good practices, challenges, and areas for improvement, we aimed to support UNICEF in ensuring that the voices and needs of affected populations are central to its decision-making processes.
This evaluation ultimately contributes to more effective, inclusive, and dignified humanitarian responses, aligning with UNICEF’s core commitments to children and their families.
Our methods and approaches
We believe it paramount to hear directly from affected communities during this evaluation and to involve community members in the evaluation process. In collaboration with UNICEF country offices and the EO, we consulted 81 community members in Venezuela, including women leaders, indigenous community members and persons with disabilities. Communities took part in participatory analysis and validated preliminary findings at the end of each focus group discussion, supporting the triangulation of findings.
Our evaluation combined the following methods:
- Process Review
We assessed how UNICEF operationalised its AAP commitments, including how community feedback was gathered, analysed and used to inform decision-making. - Contribution Analysis
We examined how UNICEF’s global and regional investments in AAP contributed to changes at country level and to the wider institutionalisation of AAP across the organisation. - Document Review
We reviewed UNICEF strategies, policies, guidance, monitoring data and programme documentation at global, regional and country levels. - Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions
We conducted semi-structured interviews with UNICEF staff, interagency partners, and community representatives. FGDs were held with affected populations to gather their perspectives and validate findings. - Global Consultation
A consultation of UNICEF staff provided insights into the nature of AAP work, the skills and experiences of staff, and areas where additional support was needed. - Data Analysis and Sensemaking
We analysed qualitative data using MAXQDA software and validated emerging findings through internal workshops, country debriefs and global sensemaking sessions with UNICEF staff.
By integrating these methods, we provided a comprehensive evaluation that highlights successes, identifies challenges, and offers actionable recommendations to enhance UNICEF’s commitment to AAP.
Outcomes and impact
The evaluation report was published by UNICEF in March 2026, with a preface from UNICEF’s Director of Evaluation welcoming the honesty of the findings and describing the report as:
“worth reading carefully, debating seriously, and acting on with urgency”.
The evaluation found that UNICEF has made important progress in advancing AAP, particularly in raising its visibility across the organisation, strengthening community participation and voice, and expanding accountability mechanisms and practices. At the same time, it found that AAP has not yet been fully institutionalised: practice remains uneven, dependent on individual leadership, weakly embedded in systems and incentives, and insufficiently linked to decision-making and results.
To address this, the evaluation set out four strategic priorities for UNICEF: establishing clear leadership and accountability for AAP at the most senior levels; making community voice central to programme quality and decision-making; adopting a more unified people-centred approach that brings together AAP, gender equality, disability inclusion, safeguarding and localisation; and repositioning AAP as a core programming approach across both humanitarian and development contexts.
