About this role

Location: Borno

Employment Type: Full-time

The CFAM Officer will help ensure that affected populations, programme participants, and other stakeholders have safe, accessible, confidential, and appropriate channels to provide feedback, raise concerns, and submit complaints about the organization's activities, staff conduct, services, and assistance.
The post holder will support the timely receipt, documentation, referral, follow-up, and resolution of complaints and feedback in accordance with organizational policies, safeguarding standards, confidentiality requirements, and applicable donor commitments.
The successful candidate will work closely with programme teams, the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) function, safeguarding focal persons, field staff, and community representatives to promote meaningful participation, transparency, responsiveness, and continuous improvement in programme delivery.

Complaints and Feedback Mechanism Management
Support the establishment, implementation, and continuous improvement of the organization's Complaints, Feedback and Accountability Mechanism across programme locations.
Ensure that appropriate channels are available for community members and programme participants to submit feedback, suggestions, inquiries, and complaints safely and conveniently.
Support the use of suitable reporting channels, including help desks, community meetings, telephone contacts, designated focal persons, suggestion boxes, and other approved mechanisms.
Ensure that complaints and feedback channels are inclusive, accessible, culturally appropriate, and responsive to the needs of women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, and other potentially marginalized groups.
Regularly review the effectiveness of feedback channels and recommend improvements based on community needs and operational realities.

Receipt, Documentation and Tracking of Complaints:

Receive, record, categorize, and track complaints, feedback, suggestions, and inquiries in the approved CFAM database, registers, or tracking tools.
Ensure that all cases are documented accurately, consistently, and securely, with appropriate restrictions on access to sensitive information.
Assign case reference numbers where applicable and maintain an up-to-date record of case status, referrals, actions taken, and closure.
Distinguish between routine programme feedback, service-related complaints, staff conduct concerns, safeguarding disclosures, fraud allegations, and other sensitive cases to ensure appropriate handling.
Follow established procedures for acknowledging complaints and communicating expected next steps to complainants where it is safe and appropriate to do so.

Complaint Referral and Follow-up:

Refer complaints to the appropriate programme team, management, safeguarding focal person, Human Resources function, or other authorized personnel in accordance with approved procedures.
Monitor referred cases to ensure timely follow-up and appropriate action by the responsible personnel.
Maintain communication with relevant teams to track progress while protecting the confidentiality and safety of complainants.
Escalate overdue, unresolved, recurring, or high-risk complaints through the appropriate reporting channels.
Ensure that complaints are closed only in accordance with established procedures and that feedback on outcomes is provided to complainants where appropriate and safe.

Community Engagement and Awareness:

Conduct community sensitization on the purpose of the CFAM, available feedback channels, the complaints process, and the rights of programme participants.
Explain how community members can raise concerns without fear of retaliation, discrimination, or loss of assistance.
Work with community representatives, field teams, and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen awareness and trust in the organization's accountability systems.
Ensure that information about feedback channels is communicated in languages and formats that community members can understand.
Collect community perspectives on barriers to reporting and recommend practical measures to improve access, participation, and trust.

Safeguarding and Sensitive Complaints:

Ensure that safeguarding-related complaints, including allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse, exploitation, and other serious misconduct, are handled in accordance with the organization's safeguarding policies and reporting procedures.
Immediately refer sensitive or high-risk allegations to the designated safeguarding focal person or other authorized reporting channel without conducting unauthorized investigations.
Apply a survivor-centred approach when receiving safeguarding disclosures, prioritizing safety, dignity, confidentiality, informed consent, and the wishes of the affected person, within applicable reporting obligations.
Avoid promising absolute confidentiality where disclosure may be required under established safeguarding procedures or applicable law.
Ensure that sensitive case information is not shared with unauthorized staff or entered into general complaint registers where doing so could expose individuals to harm.
Promote awareness of the organization's Code of Conduct, safeguarding commitments, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and prohibition of retaliation against complainants and whistleblowers.

Confidentiality and Data Protection:

Maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and security of complaints, feedback records, and personal information.
Ensure that records are stored securely and that access is limited to authorized personnel with a legitimate need to know.
Follow organizational requirements for data collection, retention, sharing, reporting, and disposal of sensitive records.
Obtain and document consent where required before sharing identifiable information, while following applicable safeguarding and mandatory reporting procedures.
Ensure that complaints are handled respectfully and impartially, without discrimination based on gender, age, disability, ethnicity, religion, or other personal characteristics.

Accountability to Affected Populations:

Promote the organization's commitment to accountability to affected populations by ensuring that community feedback informs programme decisions and service improvements.
Work with programme teams to ensure that beneficiaries understand programme objectives, eligibility criteria, selection processes, entitlements, and available services.
Identify recurring complaints relating to beneficiary selection, assistance distribution, staff conduct, service quality, communication, or programme implementation.
Encourage meaningful participation by community members in identifying concerns and proposing solutions.
Support the organization to close the feedback loop by communicating relevant actions and improvements to communities in an appropriate and accessible manner.

Coordination with Programme and MEAL Teams:

Collaborate with programme and MEAL teams to integrate feedback and accountability activities into programme implementation, monitoring, and learning processes.

Complaint Feedback and Accountability Mechanism Officer