Quality Standards
Four hundred organisations from six regions were consulted in order to develop the Quality Standards – the first time such an exercise has been undertaken on this scale.
The Quality Standards are available in the form of handbooks and can be used by your organisation as guidance documents, and to review and improve the quality of the humanitarian learning and assessment you provide.
There are two sets of Quality Standards:
- Humanitarian Learning Standards
- Standards for Assessment of Humanitarian Competencies
Each handbook contains seven/ eight Standards split into two levels – silver and gold. Each individual Standard has key actions which organisations can review themselves against to assess if they are meeting that Standard.
The silver level Standards are for organisations that are newer to learning and development and contain half the key actions of the more extensive gold level which is intended for the more experienced organisations.
Organisations can choose to start with the silver Standards and then progress to the gold Standards, or go straight to gold depending on internal capacity and expertise.
Quality Standards Resources
The following Standards are available for free below.
- At-a-glance guides summarising each set of Quality Standards
- Quality Standards handbook outlining the Standards and the accompanying key actions in detail
- Self-assessment forms enabling you to assess your organisation against each set of Standards and identify strengths and weaknesses
- Quality Manual setting out the process for organisations to be externally reviewed against the Standards and achieve HPass Certified Status
The humanitarian quality standards are excellent because they raise the learning and assessment provision within the humanitarian sector for our institution.
International College of Peace Studies, Nairobi.
The Learning Standards
What are the learning standards?
The Humanitarian Learning Standards aim to improve the quality of learning for people involved in humanitarian action, and thus enhance their effectiveness in helping communities who are vulnerable to, or affected by, crises.
The Standards provide criteria to measure the quality of your learning provision. You, the learning provider, can use them as a basis for checking your performance and to guide improvements within your organisation whether you are a non-governmental organisation, private company or government department.
Download our HPass Humanitarian Learning Standards handbook for the provision of quality learning for humanitarian action.
- Look inside

Afghanistan is a country recovering from and still experiencing conflict. We are providing a wide array of trainings related to humanitarian action, and we find that the standards have helped us improve our services.
American University of Afghanistan
Standards for the Assessment of Humanitarian Competencies
The Standards for the assessment of humanitarian competencies (Assessment Standards for short) aim to improve the quality of assessment linked to humanitarian action, and thus support organisations to implement a competency-based approach and select, retain and promote effective individuals.

Download our HPass Standards for the Assessment of Humanitarian Competencies handbook for the provision of quality assessment of competencies for humanitarian action.
- Look inside

Quality Standards Services
In addition to the free Quality Standards resources available, HPass provides two services to organisations interested in further developing their learning and assessment provision.
HPass Support Services provide dedicated support to organisations to integrate the Standards into their practice or to address a particular support need. To find out more about these services please click here.
Once you are confident your organisation is meeting the Quality Standards you may choose to undertake a Quality Review which can lead to organisations becoming HPass Certified. To find out more about the process of an external Quality Review or to apply for HPass Certified Status, please click here.
Organisations who want to find out more or are interested in accessing the HPass services should contact info@hpass.org