The Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP) was established in 1997, as a mechanism to provide a forum on learning, accountability and performance issues for the humanitarian sector, following the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda (JEEAR). The JEEAR is the most comprehensive system-wide evaluation of an international response to a humanitarian crisis to date. It led to demands for increased professionalisation of the humanitarian sector.

Consequently, several initiatives were developed during the same few years to improve the performance of the humanitarian sector. These include The Code of Conduct for The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, the Sphere Project, the Humanitarian Ombudsman Project (which became HAP International) and People In Aid.