"Since October 2017, the Common Service for Community Engagement and Accountability (‘the Common Service’) has been funded as a dedicated project providing key services and support to help humanitarian organisations engage effectively with Rohingya communities and Bangladeshis living near Rohing ... ya camps (host communities) in Cox’s Bazar. A sub-national working group on communicating with communities (CwC) already existed in Bangladesh and was activated in response to the Rohingya refugee crisis. The Common Service project operates alongside the working group carrying out a diverse range of activities including creating and sharing audio and visual content in the Rohingya language; supporting and training humanitarian agencies on language, communication, community engagement and accountability; and operating a collective feedback analysis service, collating and analysing community feedback and complaints data from different sources and producing a fortnightly bulletin" (Preface, page 4). –- "There is strong evidence to suggest that community members have improved access to coordinated, timely and responsive two-way community engagement as a result of the Common Service. The evaluation has found causal evidence to suggest that support the Common Service has provided to the humanitarian sector, through provision of communication materials and training has led to humanitarian agencies being better equipped to communicate with communities and in turn community members having access to key, useful information which has prompted them to take action." (Conclusions, page 50) more

"A survey, conducted in July 2018, interviewed 750 people from the Rohingya community and 750 people from the host community (local Bangladeshi citizens) about how they access information, what they think of the information and how they communicate with aid providers. The survey tracked how perceive ... d provision of information has changed since an initial information needs assessment, carried out by Internews, in October 2017 [...] The survey shows that people feel substantially more informed in July 2018 than they did in October 2017. The Internews study in October found that only 23% of Rohingya men and women felt they had enough information to make good decisions for themselves and their family. This recent study shows that 84% feel they have enough information to make good decisions for themselves and their families and three quarters (75%) of the Rohingya community said it had become easier to get information over the last six months. This is similar to other data collected – a recent Translators without Borders study found that 68% of Rohingya refugees feel they have enough information to make decisions. During fieldwork, almost a third (30%) of Rohingya survey respondents asked the data collectors questions such as, did they know where to collect relief, or did they know anything about the Government’s plans for repatriation? This suggests that while the Rohingya community feel better informed than when they first arrived, they still have many questions, particularly around their future – only 41% of respondents said they felt informed about their options for the future. The survey showed that the current key information needs of the Rohingya and host community are around their main concerns – where to find food. The Rohingya are also worried about sourcing cooking fuel, while the host community is seeking information around financial support as a result of perceived declining employment opportunities [...] Mahjis (Rohingya community leaders) are the main source of information for Rohingya people (mentioned by 87% of participants) and are now the most trusted source of information (they were only ranked 7th in the October 2017 information needs assessment). This increase in trust may be reflective of how agencies and camp coordinators are more systematically using mahjis to share information with people in their camp block. Mahjis are the main channel through which Rohingya communities say they communicate with aid providers (mentioned by 38% of respondents)." (Executiv summary) more