Community-Based Complaints Mechanisms in Malawi
Helping survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse
Highlights
This booklet documents the community measures that are necessary to create a safe, non-threatening and easily accessible process to enable even the most powerless to make a complaint. The booklet documents the existing CBCM in Malawi and provides guidance on how to provide assistance to survivors and make referrals to appropriate services. Community members are empowered to be able to present complaints in ways that suit them and that take power dynamics, cultural, geographical, and protection and safety issues into account. Women, men, children, the elderly, the non-literate, people living with chronic illness, people with disabilities, and communities located in remote areas all need to be able to submit complaints with relative ease and confidence. A range of measures may, therefore, be required to ensure that the mechanisms is accessible to all groups, including the most vulnerable and socially excluded.
