HAP board met on 10-11 December 2014 in Copenhagen at the headquarters of Danish Church Aid. NHN Chairperson, Mr. Sajid Qaisrani(ED Sungi) participated in the meeting. Meeting approved the final version of new Core Humanitarian Standard and also gave go ahead to the merger of HAP International and People in Aid.

The new Core Humanitarian Standard was launched on 12 December 2014 at a ceremony at the Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ceremony was attended from Pakistan by Mr. Sajid Qaisrani (Chairperson NHN), Mr. Naseer Memon (Central Executive Committee Member NHN) and Mr. Marvin Parvez (Executive Director Church World Service Pakistan).

The result of a 12-month, three-stage consultation, the CHS was rigorously analyzed and tested by key stakeholders in the sector, including: humanitarian workers, communities and people affected by crisis, several hundred NGOs, international NGOs and networks, governments, United Nations and donor agencies, and academics.

The consultation process was facilitated by HAP, People In Aid and the Sphere Project and is based on an open source methodology with transparency at the heart of the process.

The CHS sets out Nine Commitments that organizations and individuals involved in humanitarian response can use to improve the quality and effectiveness of the assistance they provide. It also facilitates greater accountability to communities and people affected by crisis: knowing what humanitarian organizations have committed to will enable them to hold those organizations to account.

The development of the Core Humanitarian Standard has been widely welcomed across the humanitarian sector.

The boards of HAP International, People In Aid and the Sphere Project have agreed that the CHS will replace the 2010 HAP Standard, the People In Aid Code of Good Practice and the Core Standards section of the Sphere Handbook. The Nine Commitments of the CHS will also be integrated into the Quality COMPAS reference framework.

The ceremony was attended among others by senior representatives of Denmark Foreign Ministry, representatives of UNOCHA from New York, Chairperson of HAP, People in Aid and Sphere Boards and their Executive Directors, Humanitarian Directors of Save the Children, Danish Red Cross, SDC, Action Aid, Oxfam, Danish Church Aid, Caford, Christian Aid, Plan International besides senior representatives from many other international organizations.