Project • Ongoing

Systematic feedback for Rohingya and host communities in Bangladesh

Rohingya people fled from oppression in Myanmar — Source: Getty Images

Ground Truth Solutions aims to provide Rohingya and local communities with a way to express their views and give feedback. Listening and responding to the voices of these communities is a vital first step in closing the accountability gap and empowering people to be part of the decisions that govern their lives. The project, conducted in partnership with the IOM Bangladesh Needs and Population Monitoring (NPM) unit, is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) secretariat.

Through the eyes of affected people and host communities, we see how humanitarian programmes are responding to their needs. Questions discussed with both groups are linked to the objectives of the Joint Response Plan (JRP) and commitments set out in the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS).

Standardised surveys are combined with broader capacity development efforts to ensure that humanitarian programmes are informed by and can adapt to the views, perceptions, and priorities of the affected people. Local organisations can then continue to provide response-wide feedback services in the future.

In this project, we aim to ensure that affected communities and host communities can hold aid providers to account because:

Rohingya and host communities have ways to provide continuous feedback to humanitarian programmes and affected people can engage in two-way communication with responders;
National and international actors better understand the evolving needs on the ground and are better equipped to respond to them;
Local responders are better equipped to collect and analyse feedback from refugees to deliver effective humanitarian interventions.

As a part of our global collaboration with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), ICRC, and national societies, Ground Truth Solutions has worked closely with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) to strengthen feedback mechanisms and capacity around perception data. You can find more information about Ground Truth Solutions' work with the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement here.