We are very excited to announce Interactive Voice Response and Reply (IVRR), a new technology letting people speak to each other across languages and input channels is now working in Somalia! We wrote about how and why it was designed in 2021 in conjunction with local populations, NEXUS members and the Dutch Government (https://www.talktoloop.org/blog/learning-series-3-lessons-learned-in-somalia).

The Centre for Peace and Democracy (CPD), hosts Loop in Somalia, on behalf of the NEXUS members. CPD has incorporated the feedback mechanism into its projects and will continue to roll it out over the coming months across its range of responses and programs.

Robert Wambu, the Programs Development Manager at CPD says,

There is huge potential for Loop. It's the last missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Everyone is asking to hear from communities more, and to be more accountable to them. Loop is applicable everywhere.

Loop Moderators have been conducting sensitisation meetings to enable deeper understanding of the use of Loop by local communities. Recently they traveled to Adado district in Galmudug state of Somalia to sensitize communities about how they can use the platform to share feedback about services from organisations working to help them.        

Loop moderators also visited Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps to raise awareness on how the system will help them to give feedback easily, freely, and safely to raise their needs, concerns and make sensitive reports safely and anonymously. The team demonstrated how to record voice messages, using various visibility materials such as stickers, fliers, posters, banners, and t-shirts with key messages. The reception from local people was very positive and numerous open and sensitive stories continue to come into the platform and be moderated and responded to.

More activities will be rolled-out to ensure that everyone is an active agent of change and that every voice is heard from across Somalia in the coming months. It’s very exciting to see how Loop can help to raise the voices of affected populations in the middle of such a severe drought and how this can help to inform accountable and safe delivery of emergency response activities.

At Loop, we believe that communities have a wealth of experience and solutions to some of their own challenges, and our role is to facilitate their solutions and help them as much as we can.