Message from the ICVA Secretariat: 16 October 2009

[IASC Products] *For action* Your Use of IASC Guidelines

E-mail Message to ICVA Members

*Please take 5-10 minutes to complete a survey on your use (or non-use) of IASC Guidelines by Monday, 26 October 2009.*

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To: ICVA Members
From: ICVA Secretariat
Date: 16 October 2009
SUBJECT: SURVEY ON THE USE OF IASC GUIDELINES
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Dear Colleagues,

As you may know, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) has over the years produced a number of operational guidelines that aim to improve humanitarian response.

The IASC Secretariat is requesting your feedback on a selection of eight sets of these guidelines to find out if they are known, used, and how they can be made more accessible. Among these are, for example, the ‘Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings’, or the ‘Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action’.

To better understand the relevance of these documents to operations, we would particularly hope that colleagues in the field, including country directors/heads of missions, will take some time to complete the survey's questionnaire(s). At the same time, views from any of your colleagues who are involved in policy setting and standards are also very welcome. We would, therefore, encourage you to circulate this message within your organisation and with your partners.

There are three different types of questionnaire:

• One for directors, managers, or coordinators of humanitarian programmes and operations at all levels - in English only;
• One for users of the guidelines: there is one for each of the eight guidelines and each in English, French, and Spanish, from which results will be merged later; and
• A questionnaire for non-users of the guidelines under review - available in English, French, and Spanish.

Each questionnaire will take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. If you have been using IASC guidelines, we would kindly ask to reply at least to the questionnaires on those products that are most relevant to your work.

The survey is available at: http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-products-common&tempid=83. The deadline for completing the questionnaires is Monday, 26 October 2009.

Thank you for your cooperation.
With kind regards,
ICVA Secretariat

*Note: This message has been sent to ICVA's [Humanitarian Issues] distribution list. Our other distribution lists are [ICVA General Information], [Refugee/IDP Issues], and [Food]. If you have not yet provided preferences for the distribution lists you would like to be included on, would like more information, or would like to be removed from any of our lists, please contact information@icva.ch.