Community Engagement and Accountability
Community engagement, formerly known within the Red Cross Red Crescent as ‘beneficiary communication’, is about giving people a voice and empowering them to participate in their own recovery while also using the feedback from communities to improve humanitarian programming. Community engagement is a mix of both new and old technologies, from face-to-face communications and town hall meetings, to crowd mapping and SMS messaging. For more information, visit http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/what-we-do/community-engagement/
Guiding Documents
A Red Cross Red Crescent Guide to Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) – Pilot version
This guide does not present a new activity, but rather adds value to what we are already doing by offering practical advice and support to improve how we communicate with, engage with and are accountable to people in need. It is written for Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and provides advice and support to build CEA in a more systematic, predictable and evidence-based way within the management cycle.
Community Engagement and Accountability toolkit
This toolkit contains tools that can help National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – as well as other organizations – to assess, design, implement, monitor and evaluate community engagement and accountability activities in support of programmes and operations. The toolkit should be used in conjunction with our CEA Guide.
Community engagement and accountability: Good practices from around the world (2017)
This publication presents examples of community engagement and accountability initiatives being implemented by the Movement in both emergency and longer-term contexts. Our work in Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East stands testament to how community engagement and accountability is not only enabling us to better respond to the needs of the communities we serve but also in reducing their vulnerability and in building safer, more resilient communities. For further information, please see www.ifrc.org/CEA
- A Red Cross Red Crescent Guide to Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) – Pilot version
- Community Engagement and Accountability toolkit
- Community engagement and accountability: Good practices from around the world (2017)
- Initial Rapid Assessment: Community Engagement and Accountability Sulawesi Earthquake and Tsunami
Related videos
- Briefing Note: What is beneficiary communications?
- Beneficiary Communication and Accountability. A Responsibility Not a Choice: Lessons Learned and Recommendations
- Beneficiary Communications Review – April 2013
- Mainstreaming BC in IFRC
- Beneficiary Communication Regional Overview Ebola Operations
- Beneficiary Communications Evaluation Haiti Earthquake Operation 2011
- Beneficiary Communication Background paper for the workshop 2013
Case studies
- Case study: Integrating community engagement and accountability into disaster risk reduction activities of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Healthcare programme in rural Myanmar (Feb 2016)
- Case study: The role of beneficiary communications in building resilience
- Case study: Typhoon Bopha: How communication can save lives
- Case study: Indonesian Red Cross and beneficiary communications: the Sumatra earthquake
- Case study: Pakistan: Communicating with beneficiaries: a two-way dialogue
- Case study: Community engagement in Cash Transfer Programming
- Case study: Canadian Red Cross radio community engagement
- Case study: Cash Transfer Programming – stories from Kalay Township of Daw San Thida Tun, Daw Tin Oo, and U Pyar Gyi – Myanmar Red Cross
More resources
- Listening to the voice of beneficiaries from Indonesian Red Cross
- Community feedback booklet 2013 from Viet Nam Red Cross Society
- Cash Transfer Programming community engagement 2013 [Vietnamese only] from Viet Nam Red Cross Society
- Feedback form [Vietnamese and English] from Viet Nam Red Cross Society
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- Rapid Assessment: Community Engagement and Accountability – Lombok Earthquakes Operation
- Reporting on Humanitarian Crises: A Manual for Trainers & Journalists and an Introduction for Humanitarian Workers
- Conflict Sensitive Reporting: A Toolbox for Journalists
- Reporting Atrocities: A Toolbox for Journalists Covering Violent Conflict and Atrocities
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