Loop: Re-imagining accountability to build community-driven response

Loop is a free, global, independent feedback monitoring system, providing space for conversations that change behaviour and improve lives at scale.

Alex Carle, Founder 

Alex is a seasoned Humanitarian and Development worker who founded Loop out of operational frustrations and an optimism that change can happen.

The international aid system is designed to serve vulnerable populations around the world. But it has itself become part of the problem.

The needs and perspectives of the most marginalised, vulnerable and underserved people are not effectively incorporated into the design and funding of services aimed at supporting them.  They are treated as charitable beneficiaries rather than active agents of change.

This occurs globally, across the international development and emergency response sectors.

It is a problem for:

Affected populations, who feel marginalised and not listened to, and who are not having their basic needs met in the most effective way for them.

Donors, because their funds could be used to deliver greater impact.

Service providers, because they need to build trust and engage with communities in order to access populations, to empower sustainability and local ownership of solutions, and to deliver high quality support.

This means that the >$1.3 trillion spent on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic so far has not been used as effectively as it could be, and the efficacy of the $156 billion spent annually on Aid isn't improving based on insights and feedback from its 'customers.'

Loop has three target audiences: those who receive aid, those who provide aid, and those who fund aid activities.

We know we need to add value to all three groups in order to scale and function effectively. 

So we've included recipients, providers and donors throughout our  development process, and Our Governing Board is made up of people who come from affected populations and who work within Organisations who provide Aid. 

We've co-designed and tested every aspect of the Loop system with:

• > 500 local people representing diverse backgrounds and needs (e.g. in relation to legal status, disability status, sexual orientation)
• Networks of civil society organisations, including those working with populations in camps, prisons and temporary accommodation, those working for transgender people in contexts where this is illegal, and all manner of development and humanitarian response programmes and global actors including: WHO, WFP, INGOs, ICRC, START network etc.
• Government Donors, donors focusing on reporting of SEAH, local philanthropy actors, Shift the Power members and Foundations. 

Our Lead designer specialises in tech in Health services and our Managing Director led the British Red Cross response to the West Africa Ebola Outbreak, two Ebola outbreaks in DRC and the early response to COVID.

Loop provides a considerable public good by enabling a globally accessible, independent and non-discriminatory feedback mechanism, providing multiple input channels, multiple language options and the option to be used anonymously. 

Loop provides a safe way for people to feedback on the services they receive and to articulate their experiences and needs in relation to health and other emergencies in a timely, locally-relevant manner. They can see and understand what other people are saying and experiencing, and engage in the discussion. They can get direct replies to their questions and posts through the technology they are already using.

Loop is unique in being open and transparent, meaning that anyone can have access to the resulting data and free-to-use dashboard, thus providing a public accountable platform raising aid 'beneficiaries' to the status of a 'consumer'.

The current paradigm prioritises financial accountability over accountability to affected populations.

Loop envisions a world where everyone can share their opinion and experience safely, transparently and equitably, bringing about increased dignity and agency for affected populations, and more relevant, coherent, effective, impactful, and sustainable services, delivered via a people-centred, inclusive and equitable ecosystem.

Loop is helping bring this to fruition by developing a global independent digital platform built into the architecture of the development and humanitarian ecosystems, empowering anyone, anywhere to self-initiate feedback, safely and anonymously.

The platform will result in:

• People's questions and concerns answered.
• Service providers using feedback to adapt services to user needs and using data to inform communications addressing rumours; and increased staff motivation.
• Donors increasing their understanding of field realities; having additional data to inform decision-making and - ultimately - a better return on investment.
• Sector-wide enhanced transparency and engagement, contributing to a new accountability paradigm.

We assume:

• Donors and service providers want to deliver services people value.
• Loop can reach scale before too many other disparate, non-transparent digital feedback mechanisms are launched.
• We can access investment to scale sufficiently to unlock revenue streams, so we are not dependent on timebound donor funding.

In the next year Loop will have built and tested Interactive Voice, Facebook messenger, Translation, SMS interface. The platform will be rolled out at scale in Zambia and the Philippines, and piloted in Somalia, Honduras and at least two other contexts (e.g. UK, Yemen, Nepal, India, Indonesia).

We will continue to seek seed funding to test and develop the technology and approach for specific purposes: i.e: health emergencies, cash distributions.

Within three years, we will have built the majority of the core infrastructure we need to start unlocking revenue streams that will sustain the core  costs of maintaining the platform, including:

1) A subscription model for Service Providers to access additional services 

2) Revenue from major donors to fund a free service (country or global level - SEAH or fraud and corruption reporting)

3) Revenue for deeper data analytics, mapping who is doing what, where

4) Revenue from advertising

5) Contributions from Foundations towards global accountability as a % of their funding model

6) Gamification of community engagement and championing of accountability 

7) Zero rated Mobile Operator contacts for a global public good

8) Grants for further investment into closing the digital divide through adapting existing technology

Our Measurement Framework articulates how we are monitoring and evaluating Loop's performance against our Theory of Change.

Our mixed methods approach combines data generated through the Loop platform itself (% of feedback that generates a conversation thread), data collected through a MEL partner (% of users who report trusting Loop, with qualitative data collection to explore rationale), and data sourced through existing key sector initiatives and frameworks, such as the Core Humanitarian Standard, the IASC's Accountability to Affected Populations M&E framework, and key data protection and transparency standards (e.g. audit against USAID's principles for digital development), to help us demonstrate Loop's contribution to the broader sector.

We are using approaches that lend themselves to assessing the kinds of complex, multi-faceted, somewhat unpredictable changes that we envision Loop is driving - such as Most Significant Change.

In addition to tracking indicators at vision, mission, outcome and output level, across all key user groups (as detailed in our Measurement Framework), we have developed a set of learning questions addressing the key assumptions within our ToC relating to scale, valued add, our business model etc.

Data will be available from piloting the platform in Zambia by the end of 2021.

1) Funding: We have funding until June 2022, and to develop and roll out SMS, translation and anonymous reporting. We need to continue delivering and testing services in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes - especially in Health emergencies, to show Loop's value in relation to pandemics like COVID and Ebola.

We need to secure a funding pipeline to build the other technologies, to reach more people and add more value, which will enable us to start unlocking revenue streams. This includes Interactive Voice technology (prototyping ongoing in Somalia); profile pages for organisations to systematise and integrate feedback mechanisms within their own internal systems; WhatsApp; and Visualisation of data on maps.

2) Trust and uptake: We are investing in communications and marketing to ensure Loop is seen as a trusted, safe platform for communities to own and engage with AND that we are viewed as a credible, integrated part of the emergency response ecosystem. Our structure reinforces this local to global learning and testing approach. 

We are well on the way to the second by co-creating the platform in conjunction with key stakeholders, alignment of our protocols with sector wide standards and SOPs etc.

Core Humanitarian Standards Alliance

START network

NEAR network

Zambian Governance Foundation, a network of 140 local civil society organisations 

NGOCC - a network of 98 actors working on Gender based violence in Zambia. 

The Loop National Coordination Committee in the Philippines 

NEXUS consortium in Somalia 

Beyond the funding, we would welcome in-kind support in communications and marketing, to further encourage trust in and uptake of Loop, as well as the areas we have outlined in our response to the next question.

We have a wide range of interested local partners to lead our integration and adaptation to the local communities. 

At the global level we would like to partner with actors including:

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - exploring how Loop could partner with donors to increase Aid accountability e.g. integrating Loop into donor requirements/suggestions for partners for 1) reporting on views of local people, 2) informing decision-making and impact assessment, 3) ensuring safe avenues for independent complaints and reporting SEAH and fraud, and 4) integration into due diligence.

University of Cambridge - shaping our approach to learning and data analytics. We would benefit from their work on behaviour change and measuring impact.

McKinsey and Company - thinking through innovative revenue streams for a charity, developing business models and testing them with possible clients/partners.

Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation to ensure our data and tagging   complements existing approaches to data collection.

Support to unlock global partnerships with Mobile Operators, through GSMA or others, to establish zero-rated numbers, negotiate integration options with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and IMO at low/ no cost, and get AWS reduced rates. 

Support on encryption, data protection standards and legal considerations would also be welcomed.