UN OCHA: ‘Darfur Hotline working well’

The Darfur Hotline, set up by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 2013, is working well, though a number of issues need improvement, according to the UN agency in its report on the last quarter of 2015.

In collaboration with NGOs, humanitarian agencies, and other partners, OCHA piloted a hotline in West Darfur in March 2013, allowing displaced people to report issues such as broken water pumps or closed schools.

By March 2014 the Hotline was covering all five Darfur states. “By providing a means for people to provide direct feedback on services, the hotline seeks to reinforce accountability of aid providers to the people they are seeking to assist,” OCHA explained in its fact sheet in September 2014.

Two years after its launch, the programme has facilitated concrete and tangible improvements in camps throughout Darfur, that are home to more than 2.6 million displaced people.

“We used to travel a long distance to El Fasher to inform sector leads about an existing gap. Now…the distance has been bridged by the hotline and that has saved time, money and efforts,” said Sheikh Abdelrahman Ibrahim, who lives in North Darfur’s El Sereif camp for the displaced.

As a result of the Hotline programme, for instance, the more than 800 students of the Murnei displaced camp school in West Darfur are able to pursue their education uninterrupted.

In September 2013, a sand storm and strong rains badly damaged the classrooms. The headmaster duly reported this to his superiors, however during the next two years, nothing was done to repair the damage. Every time there was another sand storm or rain, teaching was interrupted. In October 2015, with support of the West Darfur education sector and with community participation, the classrooms of the camp school were rehabilitated and the roof was fixed within two months, OCHA reports.

Lessons learnt

According to the UN agency’s latest quarterly report on the Hotline, 91 calls were received between October and December last year. 14 water and sanitary issues were identified, ten health issues, and five cases concerning ‘emergency shelter and non-food items’.

As of 31 December last year, “the overall, cumulative, response rate stood at 90 percent,” the report reads.

OCHA further points out in the report that a number of issues could be improved: The way issues are followed up from when they are first notified to when they are finally addressed needs to be strengthened.

More constructive engagement is needed from both OCHA and the Sectors to reduce the response time. Continued dialogue with sectors and humanitarian partners is critical in resolving pending issues, especially long-standing ones and/or issues with continued contradicting information, as this can lead to a delay in the response time and may also lead to double-reporting of issues.

Further, some locations in Darfur experience network problems, which can seriously impact the functioning of the Hotline, affecting not only the identification of malfunctioning services but also the verification of issues and cross-checking of responses.

Also issues may take longer to be addressed and resolved in certain areas, because of the implementing partners’ lack of funding, lack of partners on the ground, sector policies (when, for example, certain services such as water management or the running of veterinary clinics are handed over to the communities), and community dynamics.

OCHA will also strongly encourage the formation of Hotline committees within the camps and gatherings which should ensure that reliable and timely information is being provided on the provision of basic services.

Furthermore, particular emphasis will be given to sensitisation activities in locations already covered by the Hotline in order to refresh knowledge of the Hotline, how it functions and its scope, to ensure active and responsible participation by the communities served. This is crucial as a significant drop in calls was observed in the past, the UN humanitarian coordination agency says.