Designing for a Change in Perspective: Embracing Client Perspectives in Humanitarian Project Design

The study builds on existing knowledge arising from previous studies conducted by a range of organizations and individuals into levels of client engagement in humanitarian and development decision making. It provides an analysis of the responses that the IRC collected through an e-survey that was shared in July 2017 with hundreds of humanitarian actors in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as staff working at headquarters.

120 staff from different international and national agencies and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement working in a range of positions (senior management, program, technical units, and monitoring and evaluation) responded to this survey. The survey results were complemented by 15 key informant individual interviews with humanitarian aid staff conducted in August and September 2017, which obtained additional qualitative information. The results of those consultations are presented in the report.

The findings of this report are intended to trigger further in-person and remote consultations with humanitarian actors between October and December 2017. Together, these will inform the collaborative development of a set of guidance which aims to support country and programme teams to improve their current practices, alleviate the barriers they face and seize opportunities to collect and use client perspectives in the design of their project.