SCI PROCEDURE: ‘ACCOUNTABILITY’

Functional Area: Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

Owner (Name + Position): Rosie Le Voir, MEAL Advisor
Approved by: Bidjan Nashat, Director of Program Quality & Impact
Date of Approval: June 2018
Version: 1.0
Date for Review: June 2019
Languages (inc. hyperlinks): English, Arabic, Spanish, French
Applicable to: Country/Regional Offices, Global Themes and SC members
Unique procedure number:

SECTION 1: PURPOSE

This procedure aims to help Country Offices work in a way that builds trusting and collaborative
relationships with children and communities through information sharing, participation, and
feedback. A strong accountability system supports high quality and appropriate programme
interventions and is key to Save the Children’s organisational values, principles and global
commitments, including the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS)
and the Grand Bargain. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children have a
right to participation.

The MEAL team, together with the project and field office managers, are responsible for
implementing the procedure, and the Country Director is accountable. However, child
participation is not the sole responsibility of MEAL; it is integral to Save the Children's approach
and should form a central part of our programme implementation and advocacy work across all
thematic areas. Any child safeguarding concerns, serious child protection concerns, concerns
related to abuse or exploitation of community members by Save the Children staff or other
breaches of the Code of Conduct must be immediately escalated to the appropriate focal point
(e.g. child safeguarding focal point).

This procedure supports the Programme Policy and Accountability Standard: All Country Offices
demonstrate continuous accountability to children and communities with whom we work, through
consultation and participation, consistent with practice standards.
The related key performance indicator (KPI) is: % of projects for which children and
communities have access to information, are systematically consulted and can participate in
decision making, in line with the Core Humanitarian Standard.

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SECTION 2: SUMMARY

Minimum Requirements

Country Offices must establish a strong accountability

system. A strong accountability system includes all
three components of information sharing, participation,
and complaints and feedback for all communities and
children. The minimum requirements below are
reflected in the Core Humanitarian Standard:

CHS Commitment 4: Communities and people affected

by crisis know their rights and entitlements, have
access to information and participate in decisions that
affect them

CHS Commitment 5: Communities and people affected

by crisis have access to safe and responsive mechanisms to handle complaints.

1. Information sharing
Save the Children must provide regular, timely and accessible information to children and
communities about:
 Who we are and the principles we adhere to;
 Our projects and what Save the Children and its partners intend to deliver (e.g. what
people are entitled to receive and when);
 Our staff and how we expect our staff to behave (including our Child Safeguarding policy
and Code of Conduct);
 How people can be involved.

This information must be communicated in languages, formats and media that are easily
understood, respectful and culturally appropriate for different members of the community,
especially vulnerable and marginalised groups.

2. Participation
Children, adults and vulnerable groups in communities The 9 basic requirements for
where Save the Children works must be provided with meaningful and safe child
opportunities to express their views and influence participation
decision-making across the programme cycle (e.g. 1. Participation is transparent and
discussing together, deciding together and working informative
together through child focus group discussions). We 2. Participation is voluntary
must listen to the voices and opinions of the children 3. Participation is respectful
and adults with whom we work to enable us to design 4. Participation is relevant
effective programmes and understand the outcomes of 5. Participation is child friendly
our work. Particular attention should be given to 6. Participation is inclusive
enabling the participation of groups or individuals 7. Participation is supported by
traditionally excluded from power and decision- training for adults
making processes. 8. Participation is safe and
sensitive to risk
Any participatory work with children must abide by the 9. Participation is accountable
9 basic requirements for meaningful and safe child Please see related documents
participation (see box). below for further detail.

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 3. Complaints and feedback
Country Offices must have a complaints/feedback response mechanism with multiple child-
friendly entry channels, as well as systematic tracking of the feedback gathered. Based on the
CHS, a single channel for complaints and feedback (e.g. a hotline) is not sufficient. A
combination of reactive channels must be established, such as hotlines, suggestion boxes;
proactive channels such as community satisfaction consultations, focus group discussions; and
capturing feedback that field staff hear on a day-to-day basis. Children and communities must
be consulted to find out the most appropriate complaints and feedback channels (considering
issues such as literacy, inclusion of marginalised groups, barriers to providing feedback and
existing community-based grievance resolution systems).

Appropriate complaints and feedback channels must exist to allow children and communities to
safely and confidentially report serious complaints (including child safeguarding concerns, sexual
abuse and exploitation concerns and breaches of the code of conduct). Any serious complaints
must be immediately elevated to the designated focal point (e.g. child safeguarding focal point,
Head of HR, Country Director etc). The Country Office must manage complaints in a timely, fair
and appropriate manner that prioritises the safety of the complainant and those affected at all
stages. Personal information collected from communities that could put them at risk must be kept
safely and confidentially, in strict accordance with data protection policies.

Country management must expect that information

from complaints and feedback mechanisms is
analysed and presented to inform management
decision making, and be able to demonstrate that
they are responsive to feedback. It is also essential
to close the feedback loop, communicating with
communities and children about the actions that
have been taken based on their feedback (or why
Save the Children was unable to act), as shown
here.

Wherever possible, country offices should not have

separate complaints and feedback mechanisms for every project. Instead it is better to have a
strong complaints and feedback system for the country office as a whole, with specific additional
channels as appropriate for projects (e.g. post distribution monitoring; exit interviews from health
clinics; tailored child-friendly feedback discussions etc).

Humanitarian Adaptations

Save the Children’s accountability mechanisms in humanitarian contexts should be aligned to the
CHS and build on existing Country Office systems. The procedure above is relevant for all
contexts; however, approaches to being accountable may need to be phased to ensure that they are
appropriate for different stages of humanitarian response.

In humanitarian contexts, information can be life-saving. Therefore, we should seek to:

 Provide information that helps keep people safe after a disaster, in addition to information
about Save the Children and our response.
 Engage with the Communicating With Communities Working Group in a response. See the
Communicating with Disaster-Affected Communities Network for further information.
 Conduct a rapid review of information sharing and complaints and feedback channels after
an emergency to ensure that channels remain accessible and appropriate.

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 Please refer to the MEAL in Emergencies System Quality Benchmarks for guidance on what
accountability-related activities should be prioritised at different stages of a response.

Other Context Adaptations

Transparency and accountability are also part of our partnership and remote management
modalities. Modelling accountability in our relationship with partners is a prerequisite to ensuring
that our programmes are accountable to children and communities.

SECTION 3: KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Organisational Units Key Accountabilities
 Implement accountability mechanisms (eg CFRM, feedback loops)
 Ensure stakeholder involvement/community engagement with
communities at all stages of the project cycle
 Organise community information-sharing activities
Country Office  Ensure there is meaningful child participation
 Country Director creates a culture of accountability to internal and
external stakeholders
 Country Office projects/programs include the appropriate, relevant
and meaningful participation of children, partners and other
stakeholders in all aspects of design, monitoring, and evaluation.
 Enable learning, capacity building, and technical backstopping to
support country offices to have strong accountability systems.
 Facilitate sharing of good practice on accountability systems
Regional Office
between country offices.
 Dedicate time at regional meetings to staff training on child-
friendly participation, information sharing, and handling
complaints and feedback.
 Coordinate and facilitate knowledge sharing on accountability
Centre across regions.
 Support capacity strengthening with regional offices, members and
Global Themes.
Member (where
 Ensure all awards include appropriate accountability
relevant) considerations.

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SECTION 4: PROCEDURAL STEPS

Job Role Accountable /

Procedural Step Deliverable /
Responsible
Output

1 Information sharing with communities

Appropriate
Consult communities on the most communication
1.1 appropriate ways to communicate and MEAL channels for the
share information with them. context are
identified
MEAL, technical Key messages
Identify the key information that should
advisers, project staff and identified
1.2 be shared with children and adults in
child safeguarding focal
communities.
point
Develop information sharing materials in
MEAL, technical
languages, formats and media that are IEC materials
advisers, project staff,
easily understood, respectful and
1.3 communications, and
culturally appropriate for different
child safeguarding focal
members of the community, especially
point
vulnerable and marginalised groups.
Participant list sent
to HR. Training is
Train staff on the key messages and
1.4 MEAL & project manager noted in staff’s
information sharing processes.
performance
review forms.
Children and
communities
Share information with children and informed about
1.5 communities, adapting our approach MEAL & project staff who we are, our
based on feedback. projects, our staff
and how people
can be involved

2 Participation

Conduct a stakeholder analysis to help Stakeholder

2.1 identify who to engage with, when and Project staff & MEAL analysis
how.
Participation
Identify opportunities for community
2.2 Project staff & MEAL opportunities
(including child) participation.
identified
Develop a participation plan, outlining Participation plan
the proposed approach and how you will
2.3 ensure the 9 basic requirements for Project staff & MEAL
meaningful and safe participation are
met.
2.4 Train staff in participatory approaches, Project staff & MEAL Participant list sent
including interpersonal skills for to HR. Training is

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 noted in staff’s
communication with children. performance
review forms.
Conduct participatory activities (N.B. Children and
these may range from short-term community’s input
consultations to longer-term is captured
collaborative or child-led processes).

For suggestions of participatory

activities including child-friendly
participatory focus groups and activities,
please see the following documents:
2.5 Project staff & MEAL
 Chapter 5 of Qualitative Research for
Development: A guide for practitioners
 Children's participation in the analysis,
planning and design of programmes.
 Guidelines for Children's Participation in
Humanitarian Programming
 A Kit of Tools for Participatory
Research and Evaluation with Children,
Young People and Adults

Analyse any information collected during Information is

MEAL, technical
participatory processes and share this shared in a user-
2.6 advisers, project staff &
with relevant decision-makers to inform friendly format
SMT
course corrective actions as appropriate.
Ensure that children and adults who Feedback loop is
2.7 participated are informed of how their Project staff & MEAL closed
views have influenced decision making.

3 Handling complaints and feedback

Consult communities on the design, Consultation is

implementation and monitoring of documented
3.1 MEAL
complaints and feedback handling
process.
Establish a range of child-friendly Diverse range of
feedback channels, including 1) proactive child-friendly
channels; 2) reactive channels; and 3) feedback channels
channels that capture daily established
communication between project staff and
3.2 communities. MEAL & project staff

Ensure systems are in place to safeguard

any personal information collected from
communities that could put them at risk.

Participant list sent

Train staff on the complaints and to HR. Training is
3.3 feedback system, including escalation of MEAL & project staff noted in staff’s
child safeguarding concerns. performance
review forms.
3.4 Share information about these feedback MEAL & project staff Children and
channels to ensure that communities are communities know

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 aware of their existence and know how to how to use
use them. feedback channels
Acknowledge, manage and analyse Complaints and
complaints and feedback data, based on feedback are
the 6 categories of complaint/feedback managed, and
MEAL & child
(see annex). category 5 or 6
safeguarding focal point
3.5 complaints are
for category 5 & 6
All child safeguarding or child protection escalated
complaints
concerns (category 5 or 6 complaints) immediately
must be escalated to the child
safeguarding focal point immediately.
Refer complaints to the appropriate Accountability
teams for action. Share trends analysis of report
MEAL, technical
complaints and feedback data with
3.6 advisers, project staff &
management (e.g. via a meeting,
SMT
accountability report), and agree upon
course corrective actions as appropriate.
Close the feedback loop: communicate Feedback loop
decisions related to feedback and closed
3.7 MEAL & project staff
complaints to those who made the
complaint in a timely manner.

SECTION 5: DEFINITIONS
Word/Term Definition
The process of using power responsibly, taking account of, and being
“Accountability” held accountable by, different stakeholders, and primarily those who are
affected by the exercise of such power. (Core Humanitarian Standard)
A set of clear, transparent procedures that provide children and
communities with access to a safe, confidential means of voicing
complaints on issues within the control of the agency. A complaints and
“Complaints and
feedback mechanism should incorporate multiple entry points – i.e.
Feedback
ways in which the complaints can be submitted. The term CFM may be
Mechanism”
used interchangeably with “complaints and response mechanism” or
“complaints/feedback response mechanism”. (Save the Children
Programme Accountability Guidance Pack)
An expression of dissatisfaction. It is a specific grievance of anyone
who believes that the organization has failed to meet a stated
commitment or who has been negatively affected by Save the Children
programs or its staff. It primarily includes concerns about the standards
of service, actions or lack of action by Save the Children or its staff and
“Complaint”
representatives, which include partner staff, volunteers,
contractors/consultants, community committee members or anybody
directly involved in the delivery of our work. A complaint requires a
response. (Save the Children Programme Accountability Guidance
Pack)
“Feedback” A positive or negative statement of opinion about our programmes and
the behaviour of our staff and representatives shared for information or
action but not with the intention of lodging a formal complaint.
Depending on the nature or seriousness of the feedback however, the

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 organisation itself may need to take the same action as if the feedback
were a complaint. (Save the Children Programme Accountability
Guidance Pack)
A non-sensitive complaint concerns implementation of activities or
“Non-sensitive programme decisions taken by Save the Children or partners that can be
complaint” handled with knowledge of the programme and common sense. (Save
the Children Programme Accountability Guidance Pack)
A sensitive complaint includes issues related to:
 Corruption, misuse of project funds or materials
 Any violation of the Child Safeguarding Policy, concerns about
unsafe programming or serious violation of the Code of Conduct,
such as any form of exploitation, abuse or harassment (including
sexual, physical and verbal) of community members by staff
 Discrimination of community members on the basis of race, gender,
creed, religion, sexual orientation, age, etc.
“Sensitive complaint”  Other complaints judged as serious by Save the Children
programme/complaint handling staff, such as violation of local laws,
concerns around safety or harm of children or other beneficiaries
arising from the way the organisation is carrying out its work.
Most of the sensitive complaints will need to be handled according to
relevant existing policies and their reporting mechanisms, such as the
Fraud, Bribery and Corruption policy and the Child Safeguarding
policy, so that confidentiality and fast-tracking can be undertaken.
(Save the Children Programme Accountability Guidance Pack)
Proactive channels are where we ask people for their feedback. We
control who is asked, when, and with what question topics and wording.
Proactive complaints
Examples include: post-distribution monitoring, participatory child-
and feedback channel
friendly feedback consultations, feedback focus group discussions,
interviews
Reactive channels provide an opportunity for people to share their
Reactive complaints
feedback and lodge complaints when they desire to do so and about
and feedback channel
what they want. Examples include: suggestions boxes, hotlines
Generally synonymous with participation.
The processes by which organisations communicate, consult and/or
provide for the participation of interested and/or affected stakeholders,
“Engagement”
ensuring that their concerns, desires, expectations, needs, rights and
opportunities are considered in the establishment, implementation and
review of the programmes assisting them.
“Children’s The opportunity for children to express a view, influence decision-
participation” making and achieve change. Notably, it should be an informed and
willing involvement of all children, including the most marginalized and
those of different ages and abilities, in any matter concerning them
directly or indirectly. Furthermore, it is a way of working and an
essential principle that cuts across all programmes and takes place in all
arenas – from homes to government, from local to international level.

The nine basic requirements for safe and meaningful child participation
are:
1. Participation is transparent and informative
2. Participation is voluntary
3. Participation is respectful
4. Participation is relevant
5. Participation is child friendly

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 6. Participation is inclusive
7. Participation is supported by training for adults
8. Participation is safe and sensitive to risk
9. Participation is accountable

SECTION 6: RELATED DOCUMENTS

1 Accountability Guidance Pack in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability in English, French, Spanish

and Arabic.

For more detailed guidance, please refer to the CHS Guidance Notes and Indicators
2
available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Khmer,
Vietnamese and Swahili.

There is an e-training available: Introduction to the Core Humanitarian Standard

Children's participation in the analysis, planning and design of programmes. A guide for
3 Save the Children staff

Includes the 9 basic requirements for meaningful and safe child participation

4 Guidelines for Children's Participation in Humanitarian Programming

A Kit of Tools for Participatory Research and Evaluation with Children, Young People and
5 Adults: A compilation of tools used during a Thematic Evaluation and Documentation on
Children’s Participation in Armed Conflict, Post Conflict and Peace Building

Qualitative Research for Development: A guide for practitioners: includes a section on

6
participatory qualitative tools for use with children and adults.

7 Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities Network

8 Save the Children Child Safeguarding Policy

9 Save the Children Code of Conduct

10 Child Participation Workplace group

SECTION 7: ANNEXES
Categories of complaint/feedback

Save the Children has six categories of complaints to help Country Offices record complaints in a
unified manner. Please note that requests for information and assistance have been identified as
categories to make it easy for Country Offices to record such issues coming through our complaints
and feedback mechanisms. All child safeguarding or child protection concerns (i.e. category 5 or 6)
must be escalated to the child safeguarding focal point immediately.

0 Thank-you messages

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1 Request for information
2 Request for assistance/help
3 Minor dissatisfaction with Save the Children activities (e.g. missing items from kits, lack of
follow up)
4 Major dissatisfaction with Save the Children activities (e.g. poor quality items, not being on the
beneficiary list, not liking programme approach)
5 Child safeguarding concerns (e.g. any concern about abuse by Save the Children
representatives, reports of sex-for-aid), unsafe programming, also breaches of Code of Conduct
(e.g. fraud, corruption, abuse or exploitation of affected adults)
6 Protection concerns e.g. child abuse or sexual exploitation of affected people by non-Save the
Children staff or representatives i.e. a member of the community, staff or other NGOs or the
UN

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