Accountability to children in humanitarian action: a rapid review of definitions, guidelines, barriers and gaps

There is increasing effort in the humanitarian sector to improve accountability to affected populations and promote meaningful participation of children in humanitarian action. However, effective systems for accountability to children, both in the protection and non-protection sectors, remain minimal. This review aims to identify definitions, gaps, barriers and enablers of accountability to children and present examples of existing systems and best practices to support the development of child-centred accountability approaches in the humanitarian sector. A rapid appraisal approach was adopted. Searches were conducted across a variety of practice focused databases using search terms such as “participation”, “accountability”, “children”, and “humanitarian” looking for publications from 2004 until 2024. The review identified a total of 64 publications, 25 of which met the inclusion criteria. This review demonstrates that humanitarian actors have produced a wealth of guidance and toolkits to inform the creation of systems of accountability to children. Conceptually the sector shares clear and consistent definitions of accountability to children; however, practical resources often remain too general and theoretical to guide real life implementation. Existing resources rarely provide specific examples or instructions on how to operationalise accountability across sectors and include only limited considerations on the factors required to ensure adequate inclusion of children from marginalized groups. Systematically documenting case studies, success stories, and the experiences of both humanitarian actors and affected populations of how accountability to children is realised in the context of different types of humanitarian crises is warranted. • Accountability to children in the humanitarian sector is increasingly prioritised. • Accountability to children in practice is often reduced to child participation. • Lack of financial resources and human capacity are major barriers to the establishment of meaningful accountability systems. • Equitable partnerships with local child- and youth-led organizations is important to ensure accountability to children is realised. • A truly intersectional approach in systems of accountability to children is currently lacking.