There have been repeated and increasing commitments for over twenty years from the humanitarian community to increase its engagement with crisis-affected populations. These commitments include pledges to listen, collect and use the views and perspectives of crisis-affected populations to inform decision making at all stages of the programme cycle. However, studies and analysis conducted over the past years have shown little progress in the way people affected by crisis can effectively influence what, how, where and to whom aid and services are being delivered. Humanitarian agencies still face a number of operational and conceptual challenges to develop and implement client-responsive programming and to be participatory in the design, implementation and evaluation of their project interventions. These challenges are particularly pronounced during the design phase of humanitarian interventions.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is implementing the project, Designing for a Change in Perspective, under its commitment to strengthening the client-responsiveness of its programming and influence and support changes amongst its peers and donors across the humanitarian sector. The project intends to better enable humanitarian agencies to collect and reflect the perspectives of those they serve – their clients – in their project design decisions. This report shares the IRC’s learning about the current practices, opportunities and the challenges humanitarian agencies encounter in collecting and using client perspectives in the design of humanitarian projects.