Forced displacement

Protracted conflict has caused the forced displacement of tens of millions of people, resulting a range of socioeconomic challenges for displaced populations and their host communities.

ESCWA and its partners are developing a project for national institutions to address the socioeconomic challenges facing internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees and their host communities. The project focuses on Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, and examines interventions, projects and programmes implemented since the onset of the Syrian crisis in 2011.

Our approach

The first phase of the project will review human capital interventions for the forcibly displaced and their host communities and assess novel intervention options to strengthen the resilience of affected populations. The project will employ a mixed-methods approach to select interventions to be included in the study. It will also include a series of semi-structured interviews with key programme staff, beneficiaries, field officers, and programme designers; quantitative analyses of available micro-data and other available primary data; and detailed desk research and document review. The second phase of the project will engage senior civil servants concerned with the forced displacement crisis on policy options and approaches that support development priorities of IDPs, refugee and their hosts.

Our partners

The main stakeholders of the project are the line ministries of member States concerned with the forced displacement crisis, which resulted from the Syrian conflict. Implementing partners are the International Security and Development Centre; Data Pop Alliance Foundation, the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics; the Ministry of Communications of Lebanon; and the Qatar Computing Research Institute. UNHCR and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs provide technical and substantive support.

Our activities

The planned activities are as follows:

• Studies on policy options that focus on mitigating human capital deterioration and on addressing gaps in development assistance.
• A publication that uses the case of Lebanon and studies the feasibility of utilizing big data to assess the socioeconomic challenges of refugees.
• Eight national workshops with civil servants to develop policy options and establish suitable interventions.