Tearfund’s operations are designed and run according to internationally recognised standards, respecting and promoting the enforcement of international law and humanitarian principles, standards and codes. These include the following commitments:
Tearfund is committed to impartiality. The assistance provided is intended for the most vulnerable and beneficiaries are selected on the basis of need alone, regardless of their race, creed or nationality.
Tearfund is a signatory of the
Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief. This Code includes the following commitments:
- Aid is given regardless of the race, creed, or nationality of the recipients and without adverse distinction of any kind. Aid priorities are calculated on the basis of need alone
- Aid will not be used to further a particular political of religious standpoint.
Relief programmes are designed to reduce the risk of future disaster by strengthening local capacity and reducing future vulnerability to disaster as well as meeting short-term needs, and to addressing the wider policies that make people vulnerable through advocacy work.
Tearfund is a member of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) and is committed to
standards of quality, transparency, participation, feedback and
learning in relationship with beneficiaries, as articulated in the
HAP 2007 Standard in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management. Tearfund is committed to outworking our core
values in these relationships.
We are committed to
child development and
child protection: it is unacceptable for a child to experience abuse of any kind. Tearfund is a member of the
Keeping Children Safe Coalition, setting the international standard for child protection.
Tearfund is committed to the
technical quality of all our projects and addressing minimum standards in our relief programmes as laid out in the
Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response. This sets out what people affected by disasters have a right to expect from humanitarian assistance, with the aim to improve the quality of assistance provided and to enhance the accountability of the humanitarian system in disaster response.
Tearfund is committed to a gender transformative approach in our programmes through restored relationships and ensuring participation by all, and to ensuring that our programmes address the HIV pandemic, through awareness and prevention programmes. Tearfund fully supports the Statement of Commitment on Eliminating Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN and non UN Personnel and deplores all forms of exploitation, coercion and abuse.
We are committed to a conflict sensitive approach in our programmes, upholding the protection of beneficiaries and contributing to building their capacities for peace.
Tearfund is committed to sustainability in our programmes and addressing environmental issues through sustainable resource management, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Tearfund’s standards in employment practice and management are verified compliant with the
People in Aid Code of Best Practice in the management and support of Aid Personnel, an internationally recognised management tool that helps agencies enhance the quality of their human resources management
Tearfund has a Framework Partnership Agreement with the EC Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) and is registered as a International Private Voluntary Organisation with USAID. Other institutional donors include: Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM); Department for International Development (DFID); Dutch Government; EuropeAid; Irish Aid, States of Guernsey Overseas Aid; States of Jersey Overseas Aid; various UN agencies; and the World Bank. For more on our institutional donors, click here.
Tearfund is a member of the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committe, an umbrella organisation which unites the leading independent humanitarian agencies in the UK in their efforts to maximise income through cost effective media based appeals to finance humanitarian relief for major disasters overseas
Tearfund participates in over 150 national and international networks and alliances, including: British Overseas NGOs in Development (BOND); Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC); European Union – Christian Organisations in Relief and Development (EU-CORD); Micah Network; and Integral Alliance.