What Is Loop?

In the humanitarian and development field, it is widely accepted that the needs and perspectives of the most marginalised, vulnerable and underserved people are not effectively incorporated into the design and funding of the services aimed at supporting them. They are treated as charitable beneficiaries rather than active agents of change. This is a problem for:

• People who feel marginalized, not listened to, and are not having their basic needs met in the most effective way for them.
• Service Providers, because they need to build trust and engage with communities to be able to access populations, to empower sustainability and local ownership of solutions, and to deliver high quality support.
  
• Donors, because their funds could be used to deliver greater impact.
  

For many people, Loop is the only feedback mechanism that is available to them. For others, feedback channels exist, but it is not clear which is the right one to use. In all cases, Loop refers feedback to the appropriate organisations.
‍
When you provide feedback on Loop, there is a higher likelihood of a reply because:

• Your story is referred to more organisations than it is addressed to. Our moderators and community do a fantastic job ensuring that the most appropriate organisations are tagged into stories based on the story content.
• Your story is translated into a language that international organisations are working in. If a reply is given in this language, Loop will translate it so you can understand it easily.
  
• Your story will be public within 48 hours of you sending it, and you can see what other people have posted as a comparison. Organisations are more inclined to respond to stories that are public.  You will be notified of any replies or comments to your story, to keep you up to date.
  
• Your story will be safe with us. We will refer on sensitive complaints or reports of Exploitation, Abuse or Harassment to the appropriate actor WITHOUT publishing it on the open platform. We are an independent charity with moderators and strong data protection policies.
  

Loop provides an independent way to gather ongoing feedback remotely, through multiple channels that are adapted to the local context. This feedback will be channelled to you and the data can be integrated with and compliment your existing feedback mechanisms and reporting.  

The Loop platform is permanently available, so it can fill gaps when setting up a response, or program, or if monitoring and evaluation budget lines are tight.

Loop provides qualitative, and quantitative, comparative, and longitudinal data to inform decision making, course correction, and triangulate other sources of data.

Feedback is openly available, thereby empowering local people (including staff and volunteers) to see and share their experiences and empower local solutions.

We're currently working on a way to safely refer on complaints and SEAH reports, without posting them online, to the appropriate person in your organisation, to respond to privately.

Currently there are multiple and varied feedback approaches being designed, tested, built and set up for each project, and each actor in each context. Loop is promoting an open tool, to cut across silos, and share learning as well as reducing costs.

In the future, Loop will provide a safe mechanism to receive complaints and reporting of SEAH. These will not be posted on the open site but will be referred on to the appropriate actor, and tracked through a case management process.

Donors can:

Loop is vastly different to anything currently in the sector because:

Loop has big audacious ambitions but it is a long road to get there. Our goal is to be a global platform with millions of stories and visitors a year. Loop will always be free to use and we are working to ensure that Loop will be financially self-sustainable. We plan to slowly grow our small, dispersed, global team of diverse experts. We want to be contributing to reducing the digital divide and leading by example on data protection and transparency.

Today, Loop has started operating in Zambia and the Philippines in English, through the mobile-first website. In 2021 Loop will be available on SMS and in multiple languages. With support from partners and donors, we will create additional ways for people to connect with Loop (WhatsApp, Facebook etc). We have a lot to learn, and our solutions will evolve based on insights from all stakeholders, but we have strong principles guide us on this journey.

In October 2020, we launched our Beta Platform in collaboration with organisations in Zambia and The Philippines. If you are based in another country, you can still use Loop – simply go to the platform and share your story, reply or upvote other stories. You can tag an organisation anywhere in the world in your story and you can register online for an early-access Loop account.

If you don't have a story to share, you can still tell your friends, family and colleagues about us. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook or you can Contact Us to discuss how Loop can help your organisation.