‘It’s a frustrating reality that while we advocate for systems change, vested interests often act as gatekeepers, perpetuating the very structures we aim to dismantle.’

This was a comment posted on LinkedIn from Adeso’s Dawit Taddele Dessie in response to the announcement that Loop, the accountability platform, had entered hibernation.

It would be too easy to dismiss Loop’s situation as another ‘failed start up’. Afterall, we know that over half of new businesses fail in the first three years, and that many non-profits are facing significant funding challenges.  But Loop’s hibernation shouldn’t simply be characterised as another casualty of a challenging funding landscape or a crowded marketplace. At the root of it is something more insidious.

At best it exposes a hypocrisy, where the sector is happy to talk about accountability to communities but unwilling to get behind the independent tools required to deliver it. At worse, it reveals a sector determined to maintain the status quo, where efforts seeking to disrupt traditional power dynamics face resistance and push back. Or as noted by Loop in its statement where ‘a small number of stakeholders [are] impeding transparent accountability processes, including threats to our staff and host organisations…’

This is a damning indictment of those diplomatically referred to as ‘stakeholders’ – and for those of us who don’t want to be lumped into this pool, we need to be more vocal in demanding better. If we don’t, we’re complicit in maintaining a reality gap where talk of transparent accountability processes means very little for those on the receiving end of ‘aid’ and ‘development’. This has been the situation for far too long with Mark Lowcock, then UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs remarking in 2021, ‘I have reached the view that one of the biggest failings of the humanitarian system is that agencies do not pay enough attention to what people caught up in crises say they want.’

Loop has shown that when people are asked and given safe channels to use, they speak up, speak out, and give feedback. Without this, how can agencies ever improve, ever learn, and critically, how can they ever protect people from abuses of power, as noted by the New Humanitarian in 2022:

‘The people sexually exploiting and abusing women in [protection sites] are the very people meant to serve and protect them; their entire lives depend on services from these same aid workers’.

Trust is a significant issue when it comes to people sharing their experiences and this is where having choice in reporting channels is critical and can mean the difference between making a report or not. If we’re serious about doing no harm and learning from the past, then agencies need to give people options and acknowledge that for some people, branded channels won’t be trusted -and if they’re not trusted, they won’t be used. As ever, this is where the rubber meets the road. If we’re to practise what we preach and ensure ‘safeguarding’ is at our centre, we need to think beyond ‘compliance’ and embrace dignity and choice.

In a previous Alliance article, Loop’s Lead, Alex Ross noted that as a ‘sector we must collectively move beyond the need for feedback to be authenticated as coming from ‘one of our beneficiaries’.’ This ‘need’ is both a consequence of, and contributor to many of the sector’s problems, characterised by Barry Knight as ego, logo, silo and halo. This pits those who are essentially on the same side against each other, creating a systemic siloing and competition between actors. This means that collective efforts – and those that have the possibility of changing systems – remain unfunded and unable to support the transformative change required.

Let’s hope that Loop’s hibernation wakes us from our slumber, and we recognise that shifting power also requires individual organisations to relinquish some control and territory, in favour of greater collaboration, knowledge sharing and transparency. Safeguarding, and community accountability standards and mechanisms shouldn’t be an either/or choice. If we’re to prioritise dignity over risk, reputation, and brand, we need more not fewer tools in our toolkit. Perhaps the final words should go to Alex Ross who said, ‘listening and responding to people’s views and voices and centring them in decision making are key ingredients for shifting power,’ – without them, we won’t realise the commitments to change and reform that so many have made.

Rebecca Hanshaw is an independent consultant and philanthropy advisor. Kate Moger is the Global Director for Pledge for Change

For more information on Loop’s hibernation and to register for its open fire side chat about its journey and learnings as a systems-level accountability tool, please visit http://www.talktoloop.org