[3] Established by agencies in the humanitarian and development sector in 1995, People In Aid grew from a small membership organisation into a global resource for NGOs.

A research report published in 1995 called Room for Improvement[4][5] had found weaknesses in existing practice in humanitarian and development organisations which led to 'poor performance by staff, so diminishing the quality of programmes'.

[4] The agencies which had initiated the research, including the British government's Overseas Development Administration (now DFID), established an inter-agency project, hired a coordinator and recruited a steering group representing 12 organisations.

The debate about quality and accountability in the sector led to development not only of a complete framework intended to prompt improvements in practice (the Code) but an evaluative mechanism for agencies to use in checking their progress and reporting on it.

People In Aid was formally established to support agencies wishing to enhance human resource management through use of the Code and became a UK registered charity.

[6] They were: Subsequently, People In Aid focused on providing the information it believed agencies needed to improve their quality of human resource management.

People In Aid believed the Code provided a comprehensive and sector-specific framework which encapsulated much of what an NGO needed to think about when seeking to enhance the quality of its human resource management.

People In Aid also set up networks intended for member organisations to learn and share experience on topics such as Health & Safety and reward.