Attachments
Feedback and response systems allow UNHCR and partners to hear directly from refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugee and IDP returnees and host community members with a view to forming a real-time understanding of the protection risks they face and to gauging the effectiveness of protection, assistance and solutions programmes.
Taking into account the different needs and capacities of concerned populations, UNHCR Afghanistan is managing a Complaints and Feedback Mechanism relying on a variety of communication channels accessible all across the country.
THE SYSTEM AT A GLANCE
All demographics provided in this report account for all queries, with the exception of emails. This is due to the challenge in determining and verifying the age, gender and specific status of the sender as a consequence to the absence of direct interaction.
UNHCR Afghanistan’s Complaints and Feedback Mechanism (CFM) operates both at Country Office level and across field offices, each equipped with various tools and channels. The Operation supports a protection mailbox, five hotlines managed by Country Office Kabul, Sub Office Jalalabad, Sub Office Kandahar, Sub Office Mazar and Field Unit Bamyan, as well as 30 complaint boxes spread across the country. All queries feed into a centralized Feedback and Response System (FRS). The CFM also includes referrals from the inter-agency humanitarian call centre, Awaaz.
Since September 2023, 102 Community Outreach Volunteers (COVs) and Community Outreach Focal Points (COFPs) deployed across nine provinces are now able to receive and record queries into the FRS. In the context of returns from Pakistan, returnees have the possibility to use the CFM to express their concerns and offer feedback during the registration process at the Encashment Centers.
The latest addition to the CFM are Community-Based Protection Monitoring (CBPM) and Rapid Household Assessments (RHAF) monitors, now tasked with collecting questions, feedback, suggestions and complaints received in the context of their activities via the CFM to expand the outreach of the system and harmonize responses to queries.