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UNHCR Innovation Service
UNHCR Innovation Service
8 min readFeb 8, 2021

A comparison between two call center models implemented in Kenya and Lebanon.

By Alice Schaus, Associate Regional Innovation Officer, with contributions from Glenn Ong’uti Mangare, Associate Protection Officer, and Joe Sargi, Senior Communication Associate.

Illustration by Hans Park.

This blogpost is the third in our four-part series on the history of call centres in the humanitarian space and how they have been tested creatively across the sector. You can find part one here and the second article in the series here.

Our last blog post covered what to consider when deciding whether to invest in a call centre. This post walks readers through the pros and cons of some of the key decisions when designing a call centre.

The learnings are based on two case studies: Kenya and Lebanon. Both have different and interesting models that are worth exploring. We will be discussing why and how UNHCR’s Kenya operation outsourced its call centre operation to a private company, and how UNHCR’s Lebanon operation is running a joint call centre with the three other organizations.

  1. Kenya case study: The advantages (and disadvantages) of outsourcing a call center

In 2017, UNHCR Kenya launched a toll-free helpline to enable refugees to have access to information without physically visiting the office. The benefits of a call center are to save time, improve the quality of the information and the ability to triage requests from refugees. The call center is located in a commercial premise in Hurlingham, a thirty minute drive away from UNHCR’s Kenya office. It’s a bustling office which doesn’t only host the UNHCR call center but also call centers for other organizations. UNHCR call operators first receive calls from refugees or asylum-seekers. Depending on the nature of the call, the operators close some cases immediately by providing the requested information. If cases require more specific support,they are triaged and escalated to the relevant officer.

Over the last few years, the call center has grown in size to a team of around 15 call operators. Many of them are refugees themselves who were hired for their language skills, as well as their understanding of the refugee context.

The operation decided to outsource the management of their call center for several reasons. Firstly, in the operation there was little expertise on running call centers and there was an immediate need for a call center for the refugees and asylum seekers who were currently in Kenya. Rather than designing a fully fledged new centre, it was decided that undertaking a quick and outsourced centre would enable the organization to test the solution quickly and gather feedback on how best to improve in a short period of time. Outsourcing it to a technical partner enabled the operation to have a call center running within 3 weeks of having signed the contract. Secondly, outsourcing was more cost-effective than setting up a call center in-house. When outsourcing, vendors have the infrastructure, systems, staffing and office space already in place, and can therefore have a service up and running more quickly than if UNHCR was testing and implementing the solution alone. Lastly, the operation did not have the office space for over 10 call operators and so it would have taken time to set up an office.

We interviewed Glenn Ong’uti Mangare, the Associate Protection Officer managing the UNHCR call center, who told us that ideally the call center would be overseen by a UNHCR colleague with call center experience. Especially during the initial conceptualization and negotiation period, he recommends hiring someone with call center expertise to work closely with the technical partner. Glenn also advised making the outsourcing contract flexible enough to adapt to unforeseen challenges.

UNHCR Call Center, Kenya.

There are several other aspects to consider when outsourcing a call center:

  • Data-Sharing Agreement- Given that any call center will deal with the personal data of refugees, specific attention needs to be given to this when outsourcing. In order to ensure compliance with UNHCR’s Policy on the Protection of Personal Data of Persons of Concern to UNHCR, UNHCR enters into data-sharing agreements with vendors. This process can include a degree of complexity and cover issues including data storage and protection. In some cases, to avoid data breaches and enable faster uploading and information access, it might make sense to develop the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software inhouse.
  • Training- Call operators of the outsourced company will have to be trained on data protection and, in the case of UNHCR, our protection mandate.
  • Accountability- The outsourced company can be requested by the commissioning agency to prepare and share data (even audio recordings) and reports regularly to track the performance of the call center. Especially for calls relating to Gender Based Violence (GBV) or Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) allegations, it is important to ensure sufficient training, so that call operators know how to manage and refer appropriately.
  • Trust- Outsourcing can raise questions of trustworthiness when the community learns that the service is not being hosted by UNHCR. A community leader once expressed concern that he talked to someone who was not employed by UNHCR. It is incumbent on UNHCR to use community communication channels to inform the community why this is the chosen method, and the steps taken to ensure quality and confidentiality.
  • Team-building- Picking a vendor who has a good company culture helps keep the team spirit up. At the Kenya helpline, team activities and ‘dress-up’ days are organized and involve interaction with other non-UNHCR teams. A popular event is when colleagues wear their home country dresses and talk about their cultures. Every Friday is ‘fruity Friday’ and the different teams bring fruit for someone they are yet to meet. It is a good way to improve team energy and learn from other call center teams. Such activities are made easier by being an outsourced team that can develop its culture to the needs of operators.

As demonstrated from our experience in Kenya, the decision of whether or not to outsource will depend on many local factors. We encourage organizations to consider all the programmatic aspects from training call operators, to data privacy and reporting when weighing-up the different options.

2. Lebanon case study: how to make an interagency model work for call centres

Since the devastating Syrian refugee crisis which began in 2011, the number of refugees in Lebanon, and with it the level of the humanitarian response, has grown rapidly. In the last few years, Cash and Food Assistance comprised over a third of the humanitarian response.

To support this programme, UNHCR outsourced a call center in 2015 to validate the ATM cards it provides to refugees. Since 2014, UNHCR provides ATM cards which refugees can use to withdraw the cash provided through the Cash and Food programme. The purpose of the validation was to make sure that identified families have the correct card in order to the winter cash assistance. In January 2017, WFP joined the UNHCR call center. The benefits of a joint call center is that it streamlines and simplifies the provision of assistance for refugees. This leads to increased accountability and improved quality of services for refugees.

Lebanon. Nouf, 29, a mother of five from Homs, holds up her phone showing the text she receives from UNHCR.

An interagency model requires sustained collaboration from the parties involved, and it is desirable to involve colleagues from multiple sectors. The organizations have to inform each other when undertaking activities that could impact the call center. They have to agree to the software used as well as the training materials and how they will be kept up-to-date.

So what are the benefits to both of these approaches?

The reasons for establishing a single agency helpline are:

  1. The helpline is integrated into a specific programme.
  2. There is no other helpline and no other partner with the capacity or willingness to participate.
  3. The organization has the resources to operate on its own, in a manner that is appropriate for the scope of the need it is responding to and the size of the community.
  4. There are several separate helplines in an area that work well together and the community feels comfortable using the already well-established helplines.
  5. There is some mistrust between the community and other organizations and so it makes sense to establish a new helpline.

Reasons for setting up an interagency call center are:

  1. The scope of the helpline’s purpose is large enough that organizations should collaborate.
  2. There are other helplines or partners with the capacity and willingness to help.
  3. The helpline’s implementing organization can benefit from a partnership to pool resources for a more effective helpline.
  4. There are too many helplines in an area and it is confusing for the community.
  5. There is already an agency/organization with a well-established helpline that is trusted by the community. In this case, it could make sense for UNHCR to join rather than establish a separate helpline.

In addition to coordinating and including humanitarian actors, local governments will often also need to be involved. In many cases, their support and approval will be required for the set-up and running of a call center. And, even when a call center is up and running, governments can intervene and decide to close call centers for a number of reasons including political reasons.

When designing a call center, we recommend operations and organizations think strategically about all the consequences of setting up a joint call center and take provisions such as:

  • Put in place comprehensive data sharing and cost sharing agreements — given that all the organisations participating in the call center will have access to certain data.
  • Establish joint Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that determine responsibilities and work streams, and joint technical committees to escalate unresolved issues to senior management. Make sure responsibilities are clearly defined for daily management and monitoring. Effectively visualise call center data to support decision-makers in taking a more evidence based approach, building on community feedback. Such monitoring is valuable when engaging with donors.
  • Document learnings and emerging practices as much as possible as there will be staff turnover among agencies who can benefit from previous experience.

The decisions on outsourcing or running an interagency call center should be considered as early as possible in an operation’s call center journey, because those decisions will have far-reaching implications with respect to the SOPs, staff training, data privacy, costs and, most importantly, user satisfaction. In some cases, in-between solutions might be optimal — for instance only outsourcing some aspects of running a call center or only partnering with another organisation on some specific aspects.

While this blog post gives an overview of some options and stakeholders involved, it doesn’t discuss in detail all the possible modalities for designing a call center. We would love to hear your experience designing call center solutions in the humanitarian context.

Please do not hesitate to share your learnings with us via email (hqinnov@unhcr.org)!

The next and final blog in our series will be about how to effectively run a call center.

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UNHCR Innovation Service
UNHCR Innovation Service

The UN Refugee Agency's Innovation Service supports new and creative approaches to address the growing humanitarian needs of today and the future.