Giving Compass' Take:

• Doctors Without Borders worker Mike Tomson writes about his efforts to provide medical care to Syrian refugees in Jordan and what he learned along the way.

• Mainly, Tomson emphasizes the importance of getting multi-source feedback and how that can improve the power of aid efforts. How can humanitarian groups internalize this lesson?

• Here's more about Tomson's efforts to recruit a team of doctors and the challenges he faced.

It seems to me so important that we know as much as we can about how good we are. Each project, or at least each project type, will need to work out how to measure this for themselves by gathering suitable information.

For me, it is not enough to be part of a movement going to sometimes dangerous places trying to do great things. We also need to look at whether our actions are as great as our intentions, and to ensure that patients are put at the centre of all of this.

Feedback is a gift. Too many people are afraid of giving feedback because they do not want to spoil the good atmosphere, but we all have an obligation to give feedback because it is what develops people.

It’s been reassuring to find that there is a good range of measures that we either already have in place or have agreed to set-up, looking at how our doctors are performing. There are also lots of similar measures set-up to look at our pharmacists’ work from several angles.

Starting my review has generated some interesting discussions on whether we’re able to provide clear feedback on the work of our nurses or health promoters, also. I know that these conversations will carry on once I’ve left, although there are of course some questions that you may never get the right answer to.

Read the full article about the importance of feedback in humanitarian work by Mike Tomson at Doctors Without Borders.