Accountability for “Leaving no one Behind”

Cecial Adhikari - Recovery Programme Manager - DanChurchAid

“Accountability is not about doing but it is about being” said Nisha Kharel, Human Resource colleague at DCA during a recent workshop with the local partners on Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS). DCA has embraced CHS across all its programmes - be it humanitarian or developmental - as the foundation for accountability. DCA is committed to apply quality and accountability standards together with the partners - we want to understand how partners approach quality and accountability – and work with them to apply CHS in all its aspects.

I am writing this blog for few reasons. One to document what have we been doing to maintain accountability and transparency and the other is my reflection from the two events that DCA has held recently which is detailed in the paragraph to follow. Though, as an organization, we have been doing several activities to enhance programme quality and accountability, we are to further strengthen our practices as a continuous learning process.  

During the past two weeks, DCA organized two events, the first one was a workshop with all the humanitarian partners on “accountability and quality” that detailed the Core Humanitarian Standards along with effective implementation of Complain Response Mechanism (CRM). DCA has a comprehensive guideline called the “Complaints Handling Systems” which details out the types of complaints, procedures for investigations and response to a complaint. At the Nepal office, it is about Complain Response Management as it encompasses the entire management cycle from receiving complains to handling and responding to them, which is beyond the complaint registration part. 

There is an ongoing discussion about considering this mechanism as a “Feedback Mechanism” as “Complaint” may give a negative connotation. We would like not to just limit it to the complaint boxes but open to multiple channels and not just about people coming to a system but reaching out to the people. We have experienced that the most effective are the feedback discussions that we do with the communities during our visits for different purposes. We have accommodated different channels such as; toll free number, emails, focal points, voice recording etc. so as to open all the possible means which cater to beneficiaries of different categories and levels.

During the same workshop, a day was spent talking about the recent DCA’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M and E) framework that is developed in line with the new Country Strategy (2017-2021). The purpose of including M and E framework was to demonstrate that accountability and quality is embedded within the M and E Framework which is developed keeping CHS at its core for increasing downward accountability as the most important. The second event was the launching of DCA’s new Country Strategy with all DCA partners, where the Human Resource colleagues reiterated the importance of CHS and accountability.  

DCA has received both Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) and CHS certifications. Till 2015, DCA was HAP certified and in 2015, after HAP was dissolved and CHS formed, DCA got certification for it. As such, DCA is committed towards accountability and there have been different practices implemented to enhance accountability at different levels.

I joined DCA on June 2016 as the Programme Manager for Earthquake Recovery Programme. Therefore, my blog is limited only to the Response and Recovery programme at DCA that was established after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. During the emergency response, the partners had deployed various mechanisms such as setting up complaint boxes, having focal people at the communities and partners, a dedicated phone line, post distribution monitoring survey and distributing various leaflets and cards with DCA and partners contact details as means to receive feedback and complaints.  We did the most possible to be accountable at the time. As we proceed to the next phase to the recovery, we have gradually strengthened our accountability mechanisms by doing it more systematically.

The partners had embedded CRM into their Community Based Psychosocial support (CBPSS) component, which was found to be effective. The CBPSS focal person ensures that adequate support is provided inside DCA and to the partners. An implementation guideline for Complaints and Feedback Mechanism has been prepared. At the end of the workshop the partners are committed to prepare a policy for their organization so not to limit it only at the project level. The Human Resource colleague at DCA is the focal point at DCA Country Office. Her role is to lead the CHS action plan and ensure that all are aware about it.

 DCA has further piloted the Listen Learn and Act (LLA) project which has provided many lessons learnt on downward accountability and feedback. LLA is unique because it closes the loop “from feedback to action” by using practical methodology for listening and responding to community feedback in relation to the CHS.  LLA does not require substantial resources and can be smartly embedded within the existing accountability systems.

 The current practices in the field includes; social audit for each of the project activities undertaken in the project location such as water supply schemes, livelihoods schemes, disaster mitigation measures etc. We carryout joint monitoring visits with the local government district line agencies. Similarly, District project advisory committee (DPAC) meetings are held in the districts and Central Project Advisory Committee (CPAC) meeting at the central. Both are also the government regulation compliance through Social Welfare Council (SWC). The representatives of SWC undertake time to time visits to the project sites for feeding to CPAC.

At the start of every project, we have an inception meeting with the VDC and community members where they are briefed about the project details. We have also been placing project information boards displaying information about project activities and budget breakdown, ensuring communities are aware about DCA’s projects. The recovery programme has developed a robust database system which contains detailed profiles of every beneficiary household that was taken at the enrollment at various levels of disaggregation. Similarly, an inventory of all project activities has also been maintained in the database.

A program quality minimum standards checklists has been developed for each sector that contains key requirements to be met defining the minimum level required to maintain the program quality. These checklists are used by M and E staff that are undertaking a field visit to observe whether our activities have met our quality benchmarks. At the project level, there is team of all M and E staff from DCA and the partners that are undertaking joint visits and peer monitoring, which contributes to learning from each other and for collective reflection. We have tried to keep this process detached from the programme team as an independent internal evaluation process led by the M and E team to bring unbiased community voices.

 Accountability is multifaceted and has multilayers with everyone being responsible. Accountability is not just for the agency delivering project activities but also for the community and everyone directly and indirectly involved in the project. To instill accountability to our primary stakeholders, the communities we serve, there is a need to get their ownership of the projects to ensure that they are sustainable. For this having a strong community feedback mechanism is the key. Therefore, we always strive for strengthening our Social Mobilization process and programming to demonstrate our commitment for “leaving no one behind”.