» RCRP-2 team boosts grievance redress skills

Specialists from the Regional Climate Resilience Programme (RCRP-2) joined over 100 others from World Bank-funded projects in the region for a transformative Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) capacity-building workshop. Held from June 3 to 5 in Arusha, Tanzania, equipped participants with skills to enhance transparency, accountability, and stakeholder engagement in projects funded by the financial institution. The workshop, facilitated by World Bank experts, covered critical GRM topics, including conceptualisation, operational procedures, and a self-assessment tool, with a focus on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse/Sexual Harassment (SEA/SH) grievance handling and electronic GRM (e-GRM) systems. “On the importance of having the mechanism, the benefits are many, including providing a formalised structure and process in which concerns and grievances are addressed in an open, timely and effective manner that brings about assurance, trust and transparency. “It is part of the stakeholder engagement plan (SEP), and it also creates awareness of the project and its objectives, plus an early warning mechanism to resolve grievances/conflicts before escalation,” said RCRP-2 Deputy Project Coordinator, Kumbukani Ngámbi. Participants learned the GRM value chain—uptake, sorting/processing, and acknowledgement/follow-up—emphasising its role as an early warning system to resolve conflicts, reduce fraud risks, and ensure compliance with World Bank standards. One of the RCRP-2 Social Safeguards Specialists, Chimwemwe Chisenga Tembo, hailed the workshop as it emphasised the need for having a mechanism close to the beneficiaries. “We need to be measuring the GRM functionality. This can be achieved by, among others, looking at the number of complaints/grievances registered against those resolved or addressed, the percentage of resolved grievances within a stipulated period or the time required to resolve complex complaints/. “We also need to pay much attention to the percentages of complainants satisfied with the resolution and the grievance redress process, and that of the project beneficiaries who use specific uptake locations,” explained Chisenga Tembo. Presentations from projects like Malawi’s Food Systems Resilience Programme, Tanzania’s Tertiary Education, and Zimbabwe’s Cordaid showcased practical GRM applications translated into other languages. “It was interesting to see the three projects with samples of the translated GRM manuals/handbooks, grievance handling forms, digital GRM in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, as well as the kind of committees that are in place at all levels, including the workers' GRM. “While the Malawi project has a handbook in Chichewa, Zimbabwe translated the documents into various languages like Shona, Venda and Ndebele. This gives a platform for beneficiaries from different corners to be able to register their grievances,” she said. Nine World Bank-funded projects from Malawi participated in the GRM capacity-building and self-assessment workshop, and other participants were from the host country and Zimbabwe.