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Compendium on Good and Innovative Practices in the Regional Response to the Syria and Iraq Crisis: Volume II launched by UNHCR-UNDP Joint Secretariat
Jan 11, 2018 | News, Press Release
[10 January 2018] – [Amman, Jordan]- The Compendium on Good and Innovative Practices documents how the Syria crisis is transforming the way the international community works together: innovating in crisis, collaborating, and adapting our approaches in response to the changing needs and shifting dynamics in the region. It provides a snapshot of good and innovative practices in responding to protracted crises at the nexus where development and humanitarian activities often meet.
With 52 in-depth case studies from across the sub-region (Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq), the compendium highlights innovations and adaptations that inform current and future programme and policy design. . This second volume has taken a particular focus on cost-effective solutions, meeting needs through collaborative design, and fostering local action. It is a tool that innovators, change makers, and practitioners can use to advance good and innovative practice in response to prolonged crisis.
The Compendium is guided by a set of good practice and innovation principles that have been developed over four years of research and collaboration with 75 UN agencies, international NGOs, businesses, and locally-led organisations. Good practice principles include: cost-effectiveness and efficiency, dynamic partnerships, sustainable benefits, Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA), and flexibility. They are applied across nine thematic areas, including accessing business markets and strengthening economies, supporting sustainable livelihoods, meeting the needs of youth, and locally-led responses.
Examples of innovation in this compendium include both incremental and breakthrough initiatives that reflect new ways of working, changes in service delivery and new models that challenge standard practice, such as UNDP’s Re:coded that provides ICT training that gives displaced persons in Iraq access to global, wage-earning employment. For example, the LEADERS consortium of six organizations designed a complex set of inter-related interventions for inclusive economic development in Lebanon. Like others, they engage multiple stakeholders to address issues; and find ways to help families, communities, governments and international actors build on existing capacities and discover solutions by shifting how they think about and address key challenges, such as growing social tensions, access to economic opportunities, engaging the private sector to harness new technologies, and strengthening gender-equality in the response.
The 52 projects were selected because they offer a unique perspective or learning opportunity for practitioners and policy makers alike. The selection criteria included cost-effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of interventions as well as accessibility, equity, and a deep understanding of the needs of those we serve, as illustrated by UNHCR’s AIM for Protection and Solutions, which more accurately integrates refugee needs into a system that speeds resettlement by 25% while reducing costs. For this second volume, the criteria for good and innovative practices was adapted to reflect our collective progress in achieving results – such as strengthening access to business markets, locally-led initiatives, innovation in government, and flexible funding.
The upcoming online launch of the Compendium on Good and Innovative Practices in the Regional Response to the Syria and Iraq Crisis: Volume II will provide an opportunity to learn how innovators are reshaping the response, share knowledge emerging aspects of the response, and engage in dialogue on how these practices and principles can increase innovation in future crises.