How a Refugee-Centric Approach Could Provide Better Solutions for Displaced Communities
By Dr. Qassem Saad
Global concerns related to the humanitarian, economic, and social aspects of the Middle East focus on about 5.6 million Syrian and 4.5 million Palestinian refugees who have been displaced to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. There are concerns about the continuous mobility of displaced people due to the unrelenting instability of their conditions. These situations raise the question of whether the current approach of providing food and shelter is the best solution for working with refugees who have spent more than 70 years as a diaspora, especially while others could end up in the same situation.
As practitioners thinking outside the box and seeking flexible strategies that serve needs arising from crises, we recommend using a refugee-centered approach. This means focusing on the rights of refugees to access humanitarian aid and basic services, livelihood, and freedom of movement; and entails studying the physical, humanitarian and psychosocial needs of individuals and families.
This requires all service providers, especially UN agencies, to put more effort and pressure on host countries to adopt these strategies and take part in identifying the most vulnerable refugee groups, and designing practical mechanisms to improve their well-being. It also requires shifts in prioritization that should be continuously updated based on changing needs. This is necessary to ensure that poor and vulnerable individuals retain access to their basic services, while avoiding the misuse of resources.
Limitations of Current Interventions
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) provides essential services to Palestine refugees based on its General Assembly mandate, which is renewed every three years. It is currently experiencing the worst financial deficit in its 70-year history, and is seeking to overcome a financial gap of nearly USD 89 million before the end of the year. Unfortunately, this situation will remain the same for the coming years due to the type of interventions and policies applied by both UNRWA and the host communities.
In Lebanon, which currently hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 274,000 Palestinian refugees, the situation is particularly complicated due to cutbacks in funding for UNRWA. The World Bank estimates that the Syrian crisis has “caused some 200,000 additional Lebanese [to be] pushed into poverty, adding to the erstwhile 1 million poor. An additional 250,000 to 300,000 Lebanese citizens are estimated to have become unemployed, most of them unskilled youth.”
UNRWA or UNHCR are accountable to persons of concern from the outset of an emergency until durable solutions are achieved. The most challenging question raised by practitioners is related to the long duration of displacement for refugees. They rely on the external assistance given by the host countries and are unable to work due to policies and procedures prohibiting refugees from any type of employment.
Because the Palestinian and the Syrian crises are different from any other crisis in the region— and even more complicated— my recommendation is to create an intervention that is not like any other emergency response intervention. It is one that is more creative and includes a triangulated combination of interventions composed of recovery, response and mitigation phases to have a better chance of improving the livelihoods of refugees. This approach can also help invest in the potential of individuals to create pathways out of vulnerability, in addition to helping them meet their health and education needs. Finally, it would help the refugees participate in social life and the economic growth of their families and communities, which is extremely important for enhancing their self-worth.
A Refugee-Centric Approach
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) as encompassing an active commitment by humanitarian actors and organizations to use power responsibly by taking account of, giving account to, and being held to account by the people they seek to assist. It refers to the responsible use of power in humanitarian action, combined with effective and quality programming that recognizes the dignity, capacity, and abilities of communities of concern.
UN agencies, INGOs, and NGOs should reshape their plans and interventions to reflect Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in a way that interplays with the main phases of emergencies: the response, recovery, and mitigation phases. This will help achieve the highest level of needs identified by Maslow’s Hierarchy: self-actualization, as well as personal growth and fulfillment. It is critical to come up with more creative strategies to promote the well-being of vulnerable groups. Furthermore, building the capacities of these groups, and facilitating their participation in economic growth, education, and the promotion of social rights can enable them to be aware of and claim their rights, and shape their own lives.
Therefore, we recommend host governments abide by their obligations to provide protection, safety, and assistance for those seeking refuge from harm without discrimination, and to ensure respect for their legal rights. Given the continued constraints on humanitarian access within Syria and the significant restrictions at the borders into neighboring countries, most civilians attempting to flee the conflict (and especially the most vulnerable among them) have nowhere to go to gain access to safety and humanitarian assistance.
Host governments are responsible for developing comprehensive refugee policies grounded in refugee rights, including the right to access humanitarian aid and basic services, the right to livelihood, and the right to freedom of movement. These refugee communities must be recognized as stakeholders. Palestinian and Syrian people are willing and able to take responsibility for their future, and host governments must allow them to formally register their humanitarian organizations so that they may also contribute to the improvement of the situation, both for themselves, and that of the host communities.
Dr. Qassem Saad is a development professional with extensive experience in the area of not-for-profit organizations. He is one of the founders of Developmental Action without Borders/Naba’a Organisation. Over the past five years, Dr. Saad has served as chairman of Naba’a, which promotes child rights and community development. Prior to Developmental Action without Borders/Naba’a, Dr. Saad worked at Save the Children, where he was first a community worker, and then moved on to become a team leader for a youth group. He later became a deputy coordinator. Dr. Saad, is a founder of NABAA UK, and also works as a freelance trainer and consultant in the areas of strategic planning and theory of change for civil society organizations, establishing non-profit organizations, building safer organizations, child rights and community Development, and enhancing the quality of Eeucation. Dr. Saad has received formal education in information technology, earned a BS in Social Science from Lebanese University, finalized his MA in Public Policy at Texas Southern University and his PhD in Human Rights at Atlantic International University.
“"East Timor: Return of Internally Displaced Persons" is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Courtesy of United Nations Photo / Flickr
