Improving humanitarian assistance through active community engagement in Yemen

Yemen | 2023 | CBPF

Yemen. The Yemen Humanitarian Fund has established a feedback hotline to ensure that people receiving humanitarian assistance can easily raise any issues and have confidence that their concerns will be addressed.

The call center has four hotline operators – two men and two women – who receive calls from 8am to 8pm daily, except Fridays. Calls can be made by phone, SMS, or via WhatsApp message.

Upon receiving a call, the hotline operator logs the issue into the system and sends a confirmation message to the caller, assuring them that their complaint has been recorded and is being processed. The implementing partner then receives a message outlining the complaint. The partner takes necessary actions to address the raised concern and maintains communication with the hotline, providing updates on the progress made.

One day, the hotline received a call reporting that the Mukhlaq Health Center, supported by the Yemen Humanitarian Fund, was not providing medicines needed by the community, including essential antibiotics and anti-hypertensives.

The Mukhlaq Health Center, located in Al-Abdiyah district in Marib, serves over 2,500 displaced people in the surrounding area.

Working collaboratively with partners in the Health Cluster, the Yemen Humanitarian Fund assessed which medicines were available at the health center. Doctors told the mission that there was a real demand for the antibiotics and anti-hypertensives that the caller had mentioned, but that they weren’t included in the standard package provided by the Health Cluster.

“These community hotlines help us be accountable and transparent, and help us adapt the program based on the real needs of affected communities,” explained Dr. Fawaz Ghalib, Health Cluster coordinator for Marib.

To address this gap, the medicine package was revised for Mukhlaq Health Center. The hotline team contacted the person who originally made the phone call to let him know that the medicine would now be available. “I’m grateful for the attention you gave my complaint,” he said.

An effective humanitarian system recognizes and ensures that affected individuals are the first responders and active participants in their own relief efforts during emergencies and subsequent recovery.

Through Accountability to Affected People initiatives, humanitarians ensure that their programs remain relevant and effective. The Yemen Humanitarian Fund’s hotline is a prime example of putting community feedback at the center of adapting and improving the quality of humanitarian response.

More information on the Yemen Humanitarian Fund:

OCHA- POOLED FUNDS DATA HUB – By Country (unocha.org)