Grievance Redress Mechanism

8.6.1 Introduction

Project implementation may be a source of grievance. Grievance may be during construction, operation, compensation payment modality, pollution, resource use conflict etc. The government of Ethiopia has a system of addressing grievances using the Ethiopian Ombudsman Institution and Public Grievance Hearing Offices (PGHO) at all levels of the decentralized administration.

A ‘grievance’ is a perceived injustice evoking an individual’s or a group’s sense of entitlement, which may be based on law, contract, explicit or implicit promises, customary practice, or general notions of fairness of aggrieved communities. In effect it could be perceived or actual issue, concern, problem, or claim that an individual or community group wants a project or contractor to resolve. Grievance related exercise include questions, requests for information, or general perceptions that may or may not be related to a specific impact or incident. If not addressed to the satisfaction of the person or group sensed it, concerns may well become complaints, and will lead to a loss in the projects to operate or failure for successful delivery of the intended development goal of the project.

Emerging trends toward the project shall be identified and addressed through community engagement before they escalate. Complaints or grievances including all allegations of specific incidents and of any damage, impact or dissatisfaction resulting from projects or contractor actions, whether perceived or actual should be identified, documented and addressed properly.

Good practice in environmental and social performance of projects required the implementation of feedback mechanisms to enable stakeholders to provide input and to make the community being heard for any grievance developed during the project. To materialize this project needs to have participatory and culture friendly grievance mechanism. In line with this fact a Grievance Redress Mechanism will be implemented to ensure that all complaints from local communities are dealt appropriately, with corrective actions being implemented, and the complainant is informed of the outcome. It will be applied to all complaints from affected parties. It will provide a formal avenue for affected groups or stakeholders to engage with the project implementers or owners on issues of concern or unaddressed impacts. Concerns will be addressed promptly using an understandable and transparent process that is culturally appropriate and readily acceptable to all segments of affected communities, at no cost and

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without retribution. GRM should be appropriate to the scale of impacts and risks presented by a project.8.6.2 Objectives of GRM

The GRM should be culturally appropriate and, as far as possible, dependable with existing mechanisms both at community level and in the administrative system/contractors. The project will establish a Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) with the following objectives:

➢ To provide project-affected peoples (PAPs) with easily accessible procedures for settlement of complaints.

➢ To provide a reliable way for the project to address and resolve disputes.

➢ To contribute to building trust between the project, PAPs and other stakeholders.

➢ To avoid illegal proceedings.

➢ Ensure transparency and accountability throughout the implementation of project

➢ Resolve any emerging environmental and social grievances in project areas.

➢ To promote relations between the project implementers, executers and beneficiaries 8.6.3. Grievance Resolution Committee (GRC)

In view of the above, a Grievance Resolution Committee (GRC) shall be set up by the PCU at Woreda level to inform and coordinate the relevant stakeholders and to provide resources for resolution activities. The Committee will maintain all records from complaint to final decision for future reference.

It will also ensure that public participation and consultation is always a part of the process to promote understanding and prevent unnecessary complaints and disputes. The GRC will be mandated to deal with all types of grievances arising at the community level due to the proposed project and its sub-projects. The GRC members shall be comprise of qualified, experienced, and competent personnel who will be able to interact and gain the trust of the complainants in the local communities. The GRC should consist of both male and female representatives. They should be able to accept complaints, provide relevant information on the process, discuss the complainants’ situations with the concerned person, and explore possible approaches for resolution.

There is a need for clear standard procedure and plan of how to register (how, where, and when) grievance and this GRM shall be disseminated within the project implementation level with focuses to communities at Kebele and Woreda where for concerns/grievances of the project are expected to be presented due to its size of the proposed intervention and site specificity of the activities. When affected or concerned persons present their grievance, they expect to be heard and taken seriously so Woreda and Kebele level project stakeholders, particularly kebele focal person is required to inform the project GRM system and provide adequate information. 8.6.4 Grievance Redness Record and procedure The grievance resolution process includes four key stages –

(i) Receive: Relevant personnel in each project site (SC and Contractor) will be required to accept formal grievances and ensure avenues for lodging grievances are accessible to the public and affected persons.

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Avenues will include: face to face with the contractor, government representative or community representative, by telephone or in writing to the above or via email.

(ii) Investigate/Enquire: information may be gathered from any other sources in order to more clearly describe the cause and effects of grievance, its level of urgency or severity and its relationship to subproject. Investigations may include site visits and meetings to determine the scale and impact of the grievance and what options there may be for appropriate responses or resolutions.

(iii) Respond and Resolve: The response should communicate findings of the investigation and resolution, and seek approval from the Complainant. If the Complainant is satisfied with the outcome, then the grievance is closed out and they provide their signature (or fingerprint) on the agreement as confirmation

(iv) Follow up/Close Out: A grievance is closed out when no further action can be or needs to be taken.

All grievances should be closed out within the initial 30 days or as soon as possible thereafter and after all reasonable attempts to resolve the grievance have been attempted.

Figure 8. 2 : Project GRM procedure

The received complaint has to be documented in writing using a standard format (Logbook) containing specific time plan for resolving conflict/complaint. After registration using standard format, it should be examined; investigated and remedial actions shall be taken. A GRM Register will be maintained at each Regional PCU by the Regional Project Coordinator based on the Complaint Forms, records of meetings and decisions and Appeal Forms received from the Woreda FPs will comprise a hard copy file and an Excel spreadsheet including the type of complaint, location, date of complaint and decision, actions to address the complaint, and final outcome.

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8.6.5 The GRM Process

➢ At community level, any person who has complaint regarding the Project activities can raise these issues with the Kebele-level contact point (Focal Person (FP), normally the Kebele Manager). All received complaints and responses will be documented and copies sent to the Kebele administration and Woreda FP.

➢ If the issue cannot be resolved by informal discussion between the project and the complainant, the complaint can be brought to the Kebele Development Committee (KDC). The complaint and decisions made will be documented and copies sent to the Kebele administration and Woreda GRC.

➢ Complaints unresolved at Kebele level will be brought to the attention of the Woreda GRC. It is recorded in a Logbook for review, further investigation and decision by the GRC.

➢ The compliant that is beyond the Woreda GRC is reported to the Woreda Project Steering Committee for final decision and report sent to the Regional Steering Committee through RPCU.

Any person or community group not satisfied with the decision at regional SC level may submit its appeal to Regional Omdurman office or Federal Commission of Omdurman as required or take its case to Court.

8.6.6 Traditional Grievance Redness Mechanism

The most famous institution of governance and dispute settlement of the Oromo people is the Gadaa.

This is an institution in which wise individuals with deep knowledge of tribal and customary laws and capable of good leadership are democratically elected to be in office for eight years. Within the Gadaa system there was a sub-structure led by the Abba seeraa (Father of law). This sub-structure, handled any sort of disputes among individuals, groups, clans, and sub-clans. In areas where the Gadaa system is still in full operation any sort of disputes is presented to this organ and are dealt with accordingly (Asmarom 1973).

In addition to Gadaa system, In areas where there is the cases of conflicts are dealt with and resolved by the institution called Jaarsa Biyyaa (elders of the community). Each and every balbala (sub-clan) Ganda (village), and Gosa (clan), have their own and well-known Jaarsa Biyyaas who are responsible to settle complian and conflicts voluntarily. Members of the Jaarsa biyyaa do not come to their positions through election, as it is the case with the functionaries of the Gadaa. They rather qualify based on their personal qualities, and through characters such as truthfulness, generosity, deep knowledge of tribal and customary laws which the society considers as central to their values.

The institution of Jaarsa Biyyaa is used by the community to solve most of the collective or individual disputes in the civil, criminal and commercial fields. This institution handles both minor and serious issues. Regarding the procedures for referral the institution itself considers cases voluntarily without any formal invitation from the disputants and mediate the disagreement to restore peace and reconciliation.

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The power of the Jaarsa Biyyaa tribunal to entertain a case and decide upon it in accordance with the customary rules was said to have been developed in the Gadaa system or later. Jurisdiction, in this case can be considered in two ways. The first one is territorial jurisdiction. In Oromo society localities are classified in terms of kinship relationships.

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