Grievance Management (GRM)
The Grievances (GRM) module, the project's Grievance Redress Mechanism, receives, tracks and resolves complaints from beneficiaries and communities, including sensitive cases of sexual exploitation and abuse or sexual harassment (SEA/SH).
This page describes how the application actually works as of 19 October 2026. The following pages detail each screen; to process a grievance step by step, see the tutorial Resolving a grievance end to end.
Access
Side menu: Grievances (GRM). The group contains:
| Entry | Permission |
|---|---|
| Grievances | View grievances |
| My Assignments | View my assignments |
| Kobo - Grievances | Create grievances and Process grievances |
| Survey Solutions - Grievances | Import grievances from Survey Solutions |
| Knowledge base | View the knowledge base |
Sensitive grievances have a dedicated page, with no menu entry (ask Bemba to “open the sensitive grievances”), available to holders of View sensitive SEA/SH grievances (see Sensitive grievances).
Life cycle of a grievance
Reception ──► Registration ──► Take-over ──► Analysis and proposal ──► Resolution ──► Complainant notified ──► Closure
│ │ │ │
│ channel │ category, type, │ assignment, │ Resolved / Not eligible
│ │ priority, duplicates │ acknowledgement │ then Closed (admin)
- Reception through one of the channels: phone, toll-free number, e-mail, mail, in-person visit, SMS, WhatsApp, suggestion box, community meeting, AI assistant (Bemba), other.
- Registration in the MIS (“New grievance” form), or import from the public website form, KoboToolbox or Survey Solutions. The source of each grievance is kept (MIS, Kobo, Public site, Survey Solutions).
- Take-over by an agent, assignment, acknowledgement of receipt to the complainant.
- Analysis and proposal following the phases of the configured workflow, with comments, attachments and escalation when needed.
- Resolution (or a not-eligible decision), notification of the complainant, then closure by an administrator.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open | Registered, not yet taken over |
| In progress | Taken over by an agent, being processed |
| Resolved | Solution found and documented |
| Not eligible | Outside the mechanism's scope; the reason is recorded |
| Closed | Definitively closed by an administrator; can be reopened |
There is no other status.
Workflow phases
Phases are not hard-coded: they come from Settings → Workflow & SLA, Phases & Escalation tab. Two workflows ship by default:
| Workflow | Phases (cumulative deadline) |
|---|---|
| Standard (20 days) | Reception and acknowledgement (D+3) → Analysis and proposal (D+10) → Resolution and notification (D+20) |
| Sensitive cases SEA/SH (30 days) | Actions immédiates (immediate actions) (D0) → Référencement sanitaire/psychologique (health/psychological referral) (D+1) → Notifications obligatoires (mandatory notifications) (D+7) → Suivi et accompagnement (follow-up and support) (D+21) → Clôture et rapport (closure and report) (D+30) |
A Reopened grievance phase (15 days) applies after a reopening. Each phase may require conditions before moving to the next (for example “Acknowledgement sent” or “Complainant notified of the decision”). See Processing.
Components, categories and types
- Component: Social protection, Health, Education. Access to a component's grievances is controlled by Access to Social Protection grievances, Access to Health grievances, Access to Education grievances, Access to Other grievances, or Access to all grievance categories.
- Grievance categories and types: managed in Settings → Grievance categories and Settings → Grievance types (permissions Manage grievance categories, Manage grievance types). Lists are not hard-coded: each institution adapts its own reference data.
Priorities and indicative deadlines
| Priority | Indicative deadline |
|---|---|
| Urgent | 1 day |
| High | 3 days |
| Medium | 7 days |
| Low | 14 days |
These deadlines feed the due date shown in lists. Contractual deadlines per category, team or priority are defined in SLA policies.
Grievance reference
The reference is generated by the configured nomenclature (Settings → Nomenclature). By default: project digit, two-digit year, five-digit sequence, for example 22600001 (project 2, year 26, first grievance). A grievance created offline carries a temporary LOCAL-… reference until it is sent.
Module permissions
| Permission | Grants access to |
|---|---|
| View grievances | Grievances menu and list |
| Create grievances | New grievance button, Kobo import |
| Process grievances | Processing screens (with Create grievances for Kobo import) |
| Close grievances | Closure (display) |
| View my assignments | “My Assignments” menu |
| View sensitive SEA/SH grievances | Sensitive SEA/SH grievances, Sensitivity filter, dedicated sensitive grievances page |
| Manage sensitive SEA/SH grievance details | SEA/SH form and verification |
| one of the Access to Education / Health / Social Protection / Other grievances permissions | Grievances of one component (Social protection, Health, Education, Other) or all of them |
| Manage grievance types, Manage grievance categories | Types and categories reference data |
| View the knowledge base, Create articles, Edit articles, Delete articles | Knowledge base |
Server-side, the decisive filter is the component: an agent only sees and processes grievances of the components they may consult. The following actions are restricted to roles: Close, Reopen, Delete, analyse and merge similar groups, administer teams, workflows and SLA policies (administrator role); Escalate (agent assigned to the grievance, supervisor or administrator).
Guide pages
- Grievance list
- Create a grievance
- Processing and record actions
- Working offline
- Teams
- SLA policies
- Escalation
- Knowledge base
- Sensitive grievances
- Notifications
- Comments and documents
- Similar grievance groups
The Help button at the top of the grievance list opens this documentation. The Bemba assistant also answers “how do I” questions, citing the relevant page.