ECHO Ex-Ante assessment Services
Are you a NGO seeking to become an EU Humanitarian or Programmatic Partner?
HQAI offers three services to support partners in becoming Humanitarian or Programmatic partners. CHS audit information can be leveraged to save time, reduce costs, and avoid duplication:
- Full DG ECHO ex-ante assessment for Humanitarian or Programmatic Partnerships.
- ECHO Bridge Audit: for organisations that have concluded a CHS initial or renewal audit HQAI leverages the CHS findings to complete DG ECHO ex-ante assessments.
- CHS+ Audit: HQAI integrates ECHO and CHS requirements into one streamlined audit process, avoiding the need for two separate assessments. Overlapping audit activities are conducted once, saving time and reducing duplication.
1. DG ECHO Ex-Ante Assessment
HQAI supports NGOs in applying to become DG ECHO Programmatic Partners through ECHO Ex-Ante Assessment Audits.
Ex-Ante Assessment audits provide independent reasonable assurance to DG ECHO on an organisation’s ability to meet its Minimum Requirements and Additional Suitability Requirements for entering a Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) and responsibly manage EU funding.
The objective of the evaluation is to assess an organisation’s systems, rules, controls, and processes.
The ECHO Ex-Ante Assessment Audit evaluates your organisation’s:
- Governance, transparency and accountability systems
- Compliance with humanitarian principles and ethical standards
- Compliance with rules, regulations, and contractual obligations
- Internal control systems to prevent irregularities, fraud, corruption, and misconduct
- Mechanisms for responsible financial management
- Capacity to design, implement, and monitor EU-funded projects directly or through implementing partners
Methodology:
HQAI conducts ECHO Ex-Ante Assessment Audits in line with ISAE 3000 - Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information and with DG ECHO’s Terms of Reference for the Ex-Ante Assessment.
Assessment activities include:
- Documentary review
- Interviews with key staff
- Observation and testing of systems, rules, controls and processes (for criteria requiring effectiveness assessment)
The ECHO Ex-Ante Assessment audit on average takes around 15 working days, varying according to the organisation’s size and operational complexity.
2. Bridge from your CHS audit to EU funding.
For organisations that have concluded a CHS initial or renewal audit, HQAI leverages the CHS findings to complete DG ECHO ex-ante assessments: Save time, cut costs.
What is a bridge audit?
A bridge audit involves using all the information gathered from one audit process, such as knowledge of the organisation, IQC, documentary evidence, audit findings, and more, to inform another audit. The process can go in either direction, from an HQAI audit against the CHS to another process, such as a donor's due diligence assessment, or from another process to a CHS audit. To complete the second audit or assessment, additional audit activities (typically interviews and document reviews) are then carried out, bridging from one audit to another.
Here, we are discussing how to bridge from CHS audits to DG ECHO’s ex-ante assessments, which are a mandatory step for organisations to become either an EU Humanitarian Partner or Programmatic Partner.
When to bridge?
A bridge audit can be carried out within 12 months of an initial or renewal audit.
Timeframe:
The bridge audit typically takes 1-3 months, subject to auditor availability and your organisation’s cooperation.
Costs:
HQAI offers competitively priced bridge audit services. For more information, please contact us at quality@hqai.org.
Methodology
HQAI will use findings from a CHS Audit to inform the ex-ante assessment by:
- Directly using conclusions from CHS audits findings: for example, where CHS audits fully cover an ex-ante question, for instance on the respect of humanitarian principles.
- Using knowledge and documents collected in the CHS Audit process: for example, going deeper into the data protection policy documents to assess compliance with GDPR.
HQAI may carry out additional audit activities, such as document review, staff and partner interviews conducted remotely, and financial ratio calculations, to address ex-ante assessment questions that cannot be answered by CHS audit findings or processes.
How it Works:
- Mapping and Review: Our auditors map CHS scores to ex-ante requirements, identifying areas for further investigation.
- Document Review: We review additional documentation to address any gaps not covered by the CHS audit.
- Bridge Activities: We conduct targeted interviews, document reviews, and financial analysis to complete the assessment.
- Report Preparation: We draft a comprehensive ex-ante assessment report, including findings and recommendations.
- Quality Assurance & Delivery: The report undergoes internal review before final delivery to you.
We were pleased with HQAI’s involvement and our cooperation throughout the process. We are very happy that the Bridge Audit worked out this well and were pleased with our collaboration.
Jeanine Timmerman, Quality Officer at Tearfund Netherlands, July 2025
3. CHS+ Audit
CHS+ audits, for example, offer a bespoke service allowing audited organisations to add aditional requirements to their CHS audit
Methodology
HQAI integrates ECHO and CHS requirements into one streamlined audit process, avoiding the need for two separate assessments.
- Overlapping audit activities are conducted once, saving time and reducing duplication.
- HQAI delivers separate reports in conformity with the requirements of the assessment holder; e.g. an Ex-Ante Assessment report in the required formt and HQAI CHS audit reports.
Benefits:
✔ Efficiency gains: saves time, effort and cost for the organisation.
✔ Reduces number of assessment processes an organisation has to undergo and reduces assesssment fatigue.
✔ Addresses diverse stakeholder requirements in one audit process.
✔ Contributes to unlocking opportunities for sector efficiencies, reduced duplication and passporting across the chain of assessment holders.
Success Story:
See how it worked for others!
Read about the success story of four CARE Confederation members (CARE Denmark, CARE Germany, CARE Netherlands, and CARE Norway) who utilised the bridge audit service: https://www.hqai.org/en/news/CareConfederation_BreakingNews/
