Engagement with affected people

People affected by humanitarian crises feel that they don't play a big enough part in responses.

According to the State of the Humanitarian System 2015 report, only 33% of aid recipients surveyed had been consulted on their needs and of those 33% only 20% said the agency had acted on the feedback to make improvements.

To help bridge this gap, ALNAP has contributed to the sector with research on feedback mechanisms and a recent Annual Meeting on engagement of crises-affected people.

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Feedback mechanisms

Report / Study

07 Oct 2014

Rhetoric or reality? Putting affected people at the centre of humanitarian action

Brown, D., Donini, A.

ALNAP

Event

11 Mar

29th Annual Meeting: Engagement of crisis-affected people in humanitarian action

11 - 13 March 2014

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Tools/guidelines

01 Mar 2014

Closing the loop: Effective feedback in humanitarian contexts

Bonino, F. with Jean, I. and P. Knox Clarke

ALNAP

Tools/guidelines

01 Jan 2009

Participation handbook for humanitarian field workers

ALNAP

Feedback mechanisms

A feedback mechanism is a set of procedures and tools formally established and used to allow humanitarian aid recipients (and in some cases other crisis-affected populations) to provide information on their experience of a humanitarian agency or of the wider humanitarian system.

ALNAP and CDA's research suggests that they are seen as effective if, at minimum, they support the collection, acknowledgement, analysis and response to the feedback received, thus forming a closed feedback loop. Where the feedback loop is left open, the mechanism is not fully effective.

Complete feedback loops can help close the gaps between accountability rhetoric and practice. Currently, however, there is a need for evidence on what works, and doesn't in different contexts.

ALNAP's joint research project with CDA on feedback mechanisms took place in 2013 and 2014 and consists of a study, a guidance document, three case studies and a literature review.