Loop carried out a pilot project and built a prototype for the Somali context in 2021. Loop received funding as a subcontractor to NEXUS, the only Somalia NGO Consortium in Somalia, as one small part of the larger Localised Humanitarian Action programme which they led. The fund manager was Oxfam Novib and the donor was the Disaster Relief Alliance, through the Dutch Government. This was a short-term pilot that finished at the end of 2021 as planned.
After the pilot, NEXUS members decided that CPD (Centre for Peace and Democracy) should host and lead on the roll out of Loop, on behalf of the NEXUS members long term. CPD is a founding member of the NEXUS consortium and a strong national organisation with programmes across the whole of Somalia.
Loop successfully raised funds in 2022, from the British Government's FCDO Safe-Guarding Unit, to build the Interactive Voice Response and Reply (IVRR) technology, designed in the pilot project, to reach across the digital and language divides.