The regional Middle East and North Africa team also increased its engagement on Syria and Lebanon. In December 2018 we submitted an advocacy briefing with recommendations to the consultation on the 3rd Brussels Conference Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region; and in January 2019 we continued conflict-sensitivity training and mentoring for an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) partner together with Lebanese and Palestinian organisations working to support Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian adolescents.

Piloting community-owned processes in humanitarian crises

We have invested in scalable community-owned processes with our partners in Yemen, enabling communities to rapidly undertake or scale-up their own initiatives for improving human security and community well-being. The use of microgrants and the provision of demand-led training have been key to this adaptation.

Beyond learning from our work, we are developing a joint study with Save the Children Sweden to understand how civil society in conflict-affected situations can be better supported by INGOs to serve crisis-affected people. Our aim is to identify and analyse some of the practical strategies being used by civil society organisations and INGOs. The study will examine pathways to more locally led crisis response and what these might look like in conflict-affected situations. This will put a spotlight on how locally led crisis response might change the role of INGOs in conflict-affected contexts.