Diakonia's Policy for complaints and response includes the possibility to send Diakonia a complaint online.  

Diakonia's complaints and response mechanism

Diakonia is committed to work in an open and responsible way that builds the trust and respect of all our stakeholders. Diakonia is striving to meet the highest quality in its development and humanitarian programming and seek to work with affected communities and populations in the best way possible.

To ensure continuous improvement of our work we are open to all complaints about our work in the countries where we operate, including Sweden. We do, however, encourage that comments and complaints about our work are raised and discussed with responsible Diakonia staff and managers as close to the activity as possible.

What is a complaint and what is it not?

A complaint is a formal expression of dissatisfaction or discontent, and/or misconduct, about someone or something.

Examples of what a complaint can be about:

• Implementation of programmes and projects by Diakonia and our partners in the countries where we work
• Behaviour of a Diakonia staff member or partner
• Violation of Diakonia’s policies and commitments by Diakonia or a partner organization
• Diakonia staff incidents related to accidents, disease, security threats or work environment

Examples of what Diakonia does not consider a complaint:

• A general inquiry about Diakonia’s work
• A request for information
• A contractual dispute or complaints relating to internal or partners’ staff employment conditions, guidelines and benefits
• If the complaint is not within the scope of Diakonia’s policy, the complainant will be informed about that.

Issues not covered

Examples of complaints that Diakonia will not accept:

• Complaints regarding partners, projects or activities that is not funded by Diakonia.
• Complaints that are already the subject to current investigation by any regulatory body or legal or official authorities in the countries where Diakonia operates.
• Complaints against a political stand/ view point/ opinion which have being taken by Diakonia or a partner organization.
• Offensive complaints using inappropriate or abusive language.
• Complaints sent as part of a bulk mail from an unknown source.

Operational and serious complaints and incidents

The system is designed to handle operational and serious complaints and incidents. The system ensures that all information about complaints and incidents will be treated with confidentiality.

Operational complaints and incidents are generally related to issues at program- and project level, such as the quality of our work, how a programme is managed or staff incidents relating to accidents, decease or security threats.

A serious complaint or incident is typically a complaint about corruption, sexual exploitation or another gross violation of our Code of Conduct.

Please note that Diakonia cannot guarantee any response or action taken in the case of anonymous complaints.

Diakonia guarantees that the complainant will not be met by retaliation from Diakonia for filing a complaint.

Malicious complaints

Diakonia operates under the assumption that all complaints are made in good faith.

However, should it be revealed that a complaint is false or malicious, any investigation underway will be stopped immediately and disciplinary actions be taken if the complainant is a staff member.

Read more about the complaint process and submit your complaint