In 2020, we collected feedback from internally displaced people and non-displaced people on their experience with the humanitarian aid they received over the past six months and the impact COVID-19 was having on their lives. This was a pilot study, so we only surveyed people in the Sahel and Centre-Nord regions. Findings from our reports supported the drafting of the 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). This first project was supported by the H2H Fund.

Our second project phase (2021) built on the baseline data from 2020 and surveyed internally displaced people and non-displaced people on their perceptions of the humanitarian aid they received. For this study, we surveyed people living in the six primary regions for the humanitarian response: Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Est, Nord, and Sahel. We were able to track if and how people’s perceptions about aid programming changed over time in Centre-Nord and Sahel (see regional bulletins). In collaboration with Fama Films, we conducted a community dialogue session with 300-500 people in Kaya and Ouaghigouya to discuss the quantitative findings. The Fama Films team then held individual interviews with a handful of participants to dive deeper into the findings, collecting qualitative feedback, and people’s recommendations for how humanitarians should improve aid provision. In turn, Fama Films produced two films summarising people’s perceptions about assistance in these regions, and our full report included detailed, concrete recommendations for humanitarians (see films and detailed report below). Findings from these reports again supported the drafting of the 2022 HNO and HRP.

We also committed to strengthening humanitarians’ capacity to collect and use perception data themselves. In September 2021, we held our first workshop with international and national NGOs in Ouagadougou on how to run perception surveys, analyse data, and react to the findings. In the summer of 2022, we facilitated individual, tailored workshops with interested organisations to discuss community recommendations and how their specific organisation could act on this feedback.

Our third project phase began in mid-2022, when we again surveyed displaced and non-displaced communities living in the six primary regions of the humanitarian response. Fama Films again facilitated a community dialogue and qualitative interviews, this time, in the commune of Pouytenga. We then co-facilitated workshop in November with the Community Engagement and Accountability Working Group to discuss how the humanitarians could act on community recommendations. Participants included humanitarian stakeholders from across the country, representing a range of local, national, and international organisations, as well as representatives from the regional technical accountability hubs.

In 2022, we also piloted a methodology to collect children’s priorities and perceptions of the response in their community. This project was conducted in collaboration with the Child Protection Cluster and implemented by five child protection specialist organisations: Terre des hommes, Plan International, ECPAT France, Humanity and Inclusion, and the National Coordination of Associations of Working Children and Youth of Burkina Faso (Coordination Nationale des Associations des Enfants et Jeunes Travailleurs du Burkina, CN/AEJTB).

Our fourth phase of the project (2023) focuses on strengthening humanitarian’s uptake of crisis-affected people’s recommendations and implementation of the actions identified in our November 2022 workshop. The project will also raise awareness of children’s priorities, advocating for action on the findings from this pilot study.