Resource
Background
This document was commissioned by IRC’s Client Voice and Choice (CVC) Initiative. The document was developed through a partnership between CVC and a team at CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. CDA is well known in the humanitarian sector for Do No Harm and the Listening Project, as well as 2012 book Time to Listen: Hearing People on the Receiving End of International Aid and 2014 practitioner guidance on humanitarian feedback mechanisms. This initial Client Responsive Programming Framework has been developed based on an extensive IRC document review and multiple consultations with IRC staff and with peer agencies. The authors would like to thank everyone for their valuable contributions.
The document in this current form is in beta version and will be iterated, refined, and developed through testing and feedback from users at different levels at IRC. IRC staff feedback is invaluable in the process of refining this framework. Please send your feedback and questions to Chloe Whitley – [email protected]
What is Client-Responsive Programming?
“Client-Responsive” describes programming in which IRC staff systematically collect the diverse perspectives of our clients; use those perspectives to inform programme design and delivery; and in which we are accountable for those decisions and our subsequent actions. Our intent is to develop and deliver assistance which is more responsive, appropriate and effective in meeting the needs of people affected by crisis.
Why is Client-Responsive Programming Important for the IRC?
We want to serve our clients in ways that are appropriate and useful in their eyes. The IRC has committed under its 2020 Strategy to becoming more responsive to the people it serves. Responsiveness is a key objective for the IRC: placing people affected by crisis at the centre of our decisions about what aid to deliver, to whom, where, when, how and why. Through investment in research, strategic partnerships and the development and testing of new practice, the IRC seeks to transform our humanitarian aid in support of more accountable and effective assistance to people affected by crisis.
What is the Client-Responsive Programming Approach?
This is the IRC’s methodology for delivering Client-Responsive Programming. The Approach comprises two main elements:
- Client-Responsiveness Actions: Seven Actions which we implement in order to collect and use the perspectives of our clients to inform programme design and delivery. The quality of the Actions are measured through reference to the CR Standards, and are supported in their delivery by the associated Guidance.
- Client-Responsiveness Enablers: The internal and external operating conditions which enable the Actions to be effective in delivering Client-Responsive Programming. CR Standards provide measure of the extent to which we have optimised those conditions; and associated Guidance provides advice on how to understand and positively shift these conditions.
What to Expect from the Client-Responsive Programming Framework?
This framework articulates the IRC’s Client-Responsive Programming Approach. The Framework provides an overarching direction, systematises practices and sets a quality benchmark for the IRC in delivering client-responsive programming. It provides organisation-wide, coherent standards, alongside guidance which can be contextually interpreted. The Framework provides suggestions for roles and responsibilities with respect to the Actions and Enablers, and references existing IRC and external resources which can be used in support of client-responsive programming.
Overview of the Content of the Framework:
Following the introduction in Part I, Parts II and III outline the IRC’s Client-Responsiveness Actions. These seven actions are: 1) assessing the operational context and local communication preferences to plan client engagement processes; 2) informing clients about the IRC and how to communicate with the IRC, and systematically collecting their input on the IRC’s programming; 3) compiling and presenting those perspectives in an actionable format to decision-makers; 4) interpreting client perspectives alongside other sources of information; 5) using those interpretations to generate options and make key decisions; 6) implementing those decisions in the field, while remaining open to new feedback; and 7) periodically reviewing how well this system is working for clients, IRC staff, and other key stakeholders.
Part IV, Client-Responsiveness Enablers, identifies the conditions which can hinder or enable the IRC in being responsive, and provides guidance on how to shift these conditions in our favour. This section includes topics such as: allocating roles and responsibilities, defining internal and external pathways for information, managing data and human resources, financing client responsiveness, demonstrating leadership, and facilitating external cooperation. Links to existing resources and relevant annexes are referenced throughout.
Click here to download the Client Responsive Programming Standards and Enablers Assessment Tool.
