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INTRODUCTION
Protection mainstreaming work and integrated programs are two of the four core areas for ensuring Centrality of Protection in humanitarian responses. Protection mainstreaming ensures humanitarian responses are safe, protective, affected people are central, involved and empowered to participate in decision-making, and complaint and feedback mechanisms enable safe, authentic two-way communication and remedial action. All humanitarian actors at all levels are responsible for Centrality of Protection and for ensuring protection is integrated system-wide to prevent and/or mitigate protection risks and impacts.
In the OPT, the humanitarian context has dramatically deteriorated since 7 October 2023. Access to lifesaving services – already hindered by decades of occupation, recurrent conflict, political turmoil, and economic instability – has dramatically decreased and protection concerns have surged. In response, humanitarian clusters have rapidly scaled-up assistance despite extremely difficult operational constraints which have contributed to surging protection risks.
For instance, in Gaza severe restrictions on humanitarian access, including the volume and type of aid supplies combined with the absence of vulnerability criteria can lead to surging protection risks especially for some of the most vulnerable, such as persons with disabilities, children and elderly persons who miss out altogether or at worst are injured while waiting for aid and services. In overcrowded shelter sites, competition for limited space, lack of privacy or measures to accommodate people with different needs can increase risks of gender-based violence (GBV), exploitation and discrimination.
In the West bank, insufficient engagement and communication with communities before visiting may put them at risk of settler violence. Further, insufficiently tailored and accessible information, such as services only available online, may miss entire groups of people or whole communities, or if there are no mechanisms to provide feedback to humanitarian actors about service failures or severe protection incidents these incidents may continue to cause harm.
Incorporating protection standards into humanitarian assistance, be it shelter sites, food, health and material aid distributions or WASH services, etc., can ensure critical services are safe, dignified and accessible while preventing harm and strengthening program impact.
This report summarizes some of the best practices by humanitarian actors in 2025 to mainstream protection standards and integrate protection services across the response and should be used as a learning tool to help advance these efforts further.