Communication with the affected population was prioritised from the outset of the emergency response in Haiti (IFRC, 2011a). This case study primarily focuses on two-way communication and feedback processes in IFRC’s Return and Relocation Programme, which supports people displaced by the Earthquake to move out from the crowded camps and informal settlements into safe housing. We met with affected community members who have received different types of assistance after the 2010 Earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Jacmel. We visited one of the temporary camps in Port-au-Prince and accompanied IFRC staff on monitoring visits to city neighbourhoods where former camp residents have rented housing using cash assistance provided by IFRC. In Jacmel, south of the capital, we met with former camp residents who used the IFRC relocation and livelihoods grant to resettle to one of the provinces outside the capital.
Our research team conducted interviews with programme staff at IFRC and several other Red Cross and Red Crescent (RCRC) National Societies that operate in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Jacmel, including Haitian Red Cross (Health Programme), Spanish Red Cross (Livelihoods Programme), Canadian Red Cross (Return and Relocation Programme), British Red Cross (Integrated Neighbourhood Approach (INA) Programme), French Red Cross (INA Programme/ Return and Relocation Programme), and American Red Cross (INA Programme). Since the focus of this case study is primarily IFRC, we are not able to summarise all the findings from each of these interviews. We have included two text boxes highlighting key elements in the design and implementation decisions made by the British Red Cross (BRC) and Spanish Red Cross (SpRC).
At the time of our visit, the BRC had a fully fledged multi-channel complaints and feedback system in place that functioned separately from IFRC’s. The SpRC was in the process of designing feedback and accountability mechanisms. In addition to RCRC agencies, we also spent a day with the staff of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Port-au-Prince and spoke to community members in several neighbourhoods where CRS implements its Community Resettlement and Rehabilitation Programme (CRRP). Our observations are included in a mini case study on CRS at the end of this case study.
A distinctive feature in the Haiti case study is the use of technology to enhance and expand communication and feedback loops. The humanitarian response to the Haiti Earthquake was characterised by an unprecedented degree and scale of application of new and innovative crowdmapping platforms, mobile technology and call-in radio shows that provided information in real time (Wall and Chéry, 2010). IFRC invested extensively in developing communication tools and accountability mechanisms with a significant focus on supporting innovation and institutional learning in order to inform IFRC two-way communications programming globally.
As with the preceding case studies, another deliberate focus of our research and this case study is on the utilisation of feedback for programme modification and decision-making. Our review of many past research studies indicated that accumulated feedback does not necessarily lead to utilisation (e.g. see CDA, 2011; Bonino and Warner, 2014). We seek to highlight the features of an effectively ‘closed feedback loop’ in which feedback from aid recipients has been acknowledged, documented and responded to. In our discussion of these feedback utilisation examples we do not judge or attempt to measure the magnitude of the change created as a result of feedback utilisation. Our focus is primarily on whether or not feedback has been used in decision-making, whether it has produced change and how. As much as possible, we trace the pathways through which information (from a single person or aggregated from multiple voices) leads to response and/or action and identify the factors that enable this process.