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    1.5.3 Accountability to Affected Populations
    • 10 Mar 2024
    • 6 Minutes to read
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    1.5.3 Accountability to Affected Populations

    • Updated on 10 Mar 2024
    • 6 Minutes to read
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    Article summary

    AAP is the active commitment by humanitarian actors to take account of, give account to, and be held to account by the people they seek to assist. The primary aim of AAP is to ensure that responses are informed by the needs and preferences of affected communities. This entails informing (making sure information reaches and can be understood by people in all their diversities) and listening to communities, establishing feedback and complaint mechanisms (that are inclusive and accessible), building partnerships with local actors, and promoting representation in decision-making.

    Different but comparable terms for AAP are used by different response operations including Communicating with Communities, Communications and Community Engagement, Community Engagement and Accountability, and Communications for Development.

    Collective commitments to AAP: System-wide accountability is essential to meeting organizational and collective commitments as outlined by the Grand Bargain Participation Revolution Workstream, the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS) and the revised IASC Commitments, from 2017, on AAP and PSEA. The IASC Commitments focus on four main areas: leadership, participation and partnerships, information, communication and action and results.  

    A Collective Accountability Framework provides the conceptual structure for contextualizing and operationalizing AAP commitments and standards into appropriate response-wide activities; it provides the basis for working collaboratively and delivering on five key outputs:

    • Output 1: Coordinated needs assessment and analysis reflects the perceptions of information needs and communication preferences of all affected community groups.
    • Output 2: The Humanitarian Response Plan is inclusive of the voices of all affected community groups. 
    • Output 3: A resourced country-level approach coordinates information provision, community feedback systems and participation. 
    • Output 4: Response implementation is coordinated with and driven by informed community participation and feedback systems and is monitored and adjusted as needed. 
    • Output 5: Coordinated, independent and participatory evaluation, verification and learning from response operations informs future actions at all levels.

    The below diagram provides an overview of the in-country structure for implementing the Collective AAP Framework and Action Plan. 

    Diagram adapted from the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Handbook (IASC, 2021) p. 105.

    “What is the FSC Coordinator’s role?” The FSC Coordinator should promote AAP to be at the centre of partners’ actions, as well as take active part of all inter-cluster initiatives on AAP.

    Examples of FSC Coordinator activities:

    • Include AAP agenda item in cluster/sectors meetings when relevant, either raising awareness on AAP/PSEA commitments and related reporting mechanisms or discussing key themes coming through complaints and feedback mechanism (and tracking progress); the protection cluster coordinator can be invited to the FSC meeting, as well as the ProCap person if present in country.
    • Provide guidance notes for AAP activities; create minimum standards or processes with the FSC members and/or with the other clusters. For instance, targeting SOPs should include clear links to assessment findings, consultations with affected communities regarding the process, and the presence of safeguards against corruption and SEA; FSC partners should have a complaint box/desk at every distribution point etc. A cluster specific “PSEA prevention and mitigation checklist” can be created using the guiding questions of SEA Risk Assessment (see example of an SEA Risk Assessment Guide from Ethiopia here – contact the GST for further training material. See also an example of a checklist from the FSC in DRC here, in French).
    • Integrate relevant indicators on AAP in the HRP (see examples listed under IASC’s Suggested Actions for cluster coordination groups to strengthen Accountability to Affected Populations and Protection in the Humanitarian Programme Cycle).
    • Liaise with Protection Cluster, its Areas of Responsibility (AORs) and gender/ AAP specialists to ensure adequate referral systems are in place (e.g. for GBV, SEA, protection of children and older people, HLP, etc.).
    • Contribute to the establishment of a Collective AAP Framework and Action Plan (see example of Syria at the link here).
    • Organize capacity strengthening initiatives for partners and members. With the support of clusters and expert agencies.  

    Examples of successful AAP mechanisms:

    • In Mozambique, a tollfree inter-agency hotline (Linha Verde) is used by the affected population and humanitarian actors to make requests for information, assistance or raise concerns in relation to, or resulting from humanitarian assistance. The hotline is operated through a call centre and is managed by WFP on behalf of the HCT. The FSC Coordinator trained the staff of the hotline and developed the FAQ and continues to present the updates and information from the hotline at the cluster meetings). 
    • In Afghanistan, a countrywide, toll-free, confidential hotline number (Awaaz) can be dialled by affected population to access information on and register feedback about the humanitarian response. While the Awaaz project is implemented by UNOPS, needs and priorities as reported on the ground are circulated to partners / clusters to help improve the quality of programming the country.
    • In Cox’s Bazar ECT set up a Communication with Communities WG (CwC WG) as part of the inter sectoral group: this group works with all Clusters/Sectors and local actors, including refugee focal points, for the dissemination of key messages, emergency issues (cyclone, flooding, etc), in the local and refugees' languages. 

    For more information on practical steps to implement the cluster AAP commitments in each phase of the HPC, refer to:

    Need ad-hoc support?

    • The gFSC help desk and the Protection Taskforce group at global level can provide support to the FSC Coordinator on AAP and protection related issues.

    Additional Resources:

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