Somalia: Who gets heard? Gender, safety, and inclusion in humanitarian feedback systems

Country: Somalia Source: ODI - Humanitarian Practice Network Feedback and complaints are one of the five Inter-Agency Standing Committee commitments to accountability to affected populations (AAP). Through this, humanitarian actors communicate, receive, process, respond and learn – in a two-way process with the community. As the humanitarian sector advances the ‘reset’ agenda prioritising efficiency and localisation, AAP has never been more important. In reviewing efficiencies, it is useful to understand who uses these systems and how their engagement affects outcomes. At Action Against Hunger Somalia, our call centre data reveals a consistent pattern: women engage far more than men. Between January and October 2024, for example, 671 calls were made by women, compared to 342 by men. In a patriarchal country like Somalia, this trend was both exciting and intriguing. Rather than treating this as a simple gender difference, we launched a study that asked the question: what does this pattern reveal about how feedback systems function in practice? Typical profile of the callers This analysis draws on interviews with 105 callers (66 women and 39 men) who used our toll-free line (to a multilingual, women-operated call centre) between January and March 2025 and gave consent to participate. Respondents were predominantly: women (62%); living in internally displaced camps (81%); without formal education (69%); heads of household (84%); aged between 24 to 39 (69%). These characteristics are central to understanding participation with feedback systems. Women’s voice depends on the channel A striking contrast emerges when comparing different feedback modalities. While women account for the majority of call centre users − as shown in Figure 1 below − they are significantly less visible in community meetings. Of th...

Original source: Relief Web