Many humanitarian and development organisations have invested heavily in mechanisms to gather feedback from the people they serve. But collecting feedback is only part of the challenge. The harder task is ensuring that community perspectives genuinely influence decisions, shape organisational priorities and lead to meaningful change.
A new evaluation by Itad, published by UNICEF this month, explores what it takes to make that shift happen in practice. Assessing how effectively UNICEF integrated Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) commitments and practices across its humanitarian and development programmes between 2020 and 2025, the evaluation provides valuable lessons for organisations working to strengthen accountability and community-centred programming. The evaluation also placed community perspectives at the centre of the evidence base, engaging directly with affected populations to understand how accountability efforts are experienced in practice.
The report was warmly received by UNICEF, with the organisation’s Director of Evaluation describing it as:
“Worth reading carefully, debating seriously, and acting on with urgency.”
Accountability to Affected Populations is a core humanitarian commitment that places people at the centre of decision-making. It seeks to ensure that affected children, families and communities are informed, consulted and able to influence the interventions designed to support them.
Progress achieved – and a clear agenda for change
The evaluation found that UNICEF has made important progress in advancing accountability and community engagement. AAP has become more visible across the organisation, community participation has strengthened and accountability mechanisms have expanded.
At the same time, the evaluation concluded that AAP has not yet been fully institutionalised. While mechanisms to support accountability and community engagement are increasingly in place, the extent to which community perspectives consistently influence organisational decisions and priorities remains uneven. Progress often depends on individual champions rather than being consistently embedded in systems, incentives and decision-making processes.
To address these challenges, the evaluation identified several strategic priorities, including stronger organisational leadership, deeper integration of community perspectives into decision-making, a more joined-up people-centred approach, and embedding accountability across both humanitarian and development programming.
Hearing directly from communities
A key principle of the evaluation was that efforts to strengthen accountability should be assessed not only through organisational systems and processes, but also through the experiences of the people those efforts are intended to serve.
Working closely with UNICEF, the evaluation team identified opportunities for meaningful and feasible community engagement within the wider evaluation design. Venezuela was selected as a case study, enabling the team to explore community experiences and perspectives in greater depth.
The team consulted 81 community members, including women leaders, Indigenous community members and persons with disabilities. Community participants were involved not only in sharing their experiences but also in validating and reflecting on emerging findings, helping to strengthen the credibility and relevance of the evaluation.
Combined with document reviews, interviews, focus groups and contribution analysis, these insights provided a richer understanding of how accountability commitments are being translated into practice and where further progress is needed.
Lessons for the wider sector
While the evaluation focused on UNICEF, its findings have relevance for organisations across humanitarian, development and social policy settings.
Four lessons are particularly relevant for organisations seeking to embed accountability and community voice more effectively in the way they work:
- Community participation improves programme relevance, trust and responsiveness. When people are meaningfully involved in shaping programmes, interventions are more likely to reflect local priorities and realities.
- Leadership matters. The strongest progress was observed where leaders actively championed accountability and community-centred approaches, helping to drive change across teams and systems.
- Feedback mechanisms alone are not enough. Collecting feedback is only part of the challenge. Organisations also need systems, incentives and leadership commitment that ensure community perspectives are acted upon and influence decisions.
- AAP is strongest when connected to wider people-centred agendas. The evaluation found that accountability initiatives are most effective when linked to areas such as gender equality, disability inclusion, safeguarding and localisation rather than operating in isolation.
Making community voices count
Reflecting on the findings, the evaluation team noted that the future challenge for many organisations is creating an enabling environment to ensure that community voices meaningfully influences decisions.
Itad’s Senior Consultant, Valeria Raggi, said: “ At a time when humanitarian and development organisations are facing growing pressures, difficult funding decisions and significant organisational change, accountability to affected populations is more important than ever. At its heart, AAP is about ensuring that people can genuinely influence the decisions that affect their lives, and that responsibility should not sit with a single team or function, but be embedded across the way organisations work. As organisations adapt to a rapidly changing environment, there is a valuable opportunity to rethink how they operate, placing people and communities at the centre and ensuring their voices help shape priorities, decisions and action. It has been a pleasure to support UNICEF in reflecting on both the achievements to date and the opportunities ahead.”
Bringing lived experience into complex evaluations
The evaluation reflects Itad’s long-standing experience helping organisations understand not only whether people are being heard, but whether their perspectives are influencing decisions and improving programmes.
Across our work, we combine rigorous evaluation methods with participatory approaches that place lived experience at the centre of learning and decision-making. From conflict-affected settings to large-scale humanitarian and development programmes, we work alongside communities, national actors and programme teams to understand not only what works, but for whom, how and under what conditions.
As organisations face growing expectations to be accountable, responsive and locally led, the challenge goes beyond collecting community feedback. It is ensuring that communities influence priorities, decisions and action. We hope the lessons from this evaluation encourage organisations to reflect on their own approaches and consider what more can be done to ensure communities have a meaningful voice in shaping the programmes and policies that affect their lives.
