Digitalising Complaints Response Mechanism in Somalia
This article is part of our Member of the Month series acknowledging Concern’s commitment to quality and accountability.
In a bid to improve its Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM), Concern Somalia decided to digitize the CRM process through the use of Digital Data Gathering. This led to the generation of real-time information which had to be handled in a well-coordinated manner in order to deal appropriately with sensitive and non-sensitive issues.
If the complaint was deemed sensitive, an email was automatically sent to the Programme Director. However, if the complaint was non-sensitive, an email was automatically sent to the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator.
This system and the data generated from Post Distribution Monitoring Surveys pointed to the need to further enhance the CRM system as there were many complaints at field level. Following this, a CRM Intern was hired to help deal with the increased workload.
The main lesson learnt is that as much as the system works well and generates readily and timely information, there needs to be dedicated staff to follow up on the complaints at field level. Without this, programme participants will lose faith in the system.
A new mother receives information on best practices in infant feeding at a Weydow nutrition center run by Concern Worldwide in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo by Kieran McConville, 2018.