Ciara Loughney
Ciara is an independent consultant based in Ireland, with over 20 years of experience in humanitarian assistance and development work with international NGOs and the UN and Red Cross systems. She has extensive experience managing programmes and portfolios in a range of contexts, including Uganda, the Western Balkans, Georgia, Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in Head Office roles. In addition to programme management, Ciara has held senior management positions. In her previous role as Head of Programmes, she led and participated in organisational audits and assessments, including an ECHO ex-ante assessment and CHS audits, bringing valuable experience of the audit process from the auditee perspective.
This varied and extensive experience has given Ciara a strong understanding of quality, accountability and compliance at programme, governance and organisational levels, including the requirements of institutional donors. Ciara has a particular interest in supporting the transition towards more locally led humanitarian and development assistance and strengthening accountability to affected populations. She holds an undergraduate degree in European Studies, an MA in International Relations and a Diploma in Project Management, and has completed a range of professional training and courses.
Ciara speaks English (native proficiency), French (intermediate) and Russian (intermediate).
Accountability, learning, empowering.
I have closely followed developments in accountability within the humanitarian and development sectors, from the early work of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership to the development and roll-out of the Core Humanitarian Standard. I have seen how the implementation of accountability standards has improved the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian and development assistance by ensuring that the voices and experiences of affected populations are meaningfully reflected in how assistance is designed and delivered. Working as an auditor with HQAI offers a unique opportunity to bring my skills and experience to assessing organisations’ performance against the CHS commitments, supporting organisational learning and improvement, and thereby contributing to collective efforts to promote quality and accountability.