Introduction

In 2012, Aktion Deutschland Hilft e.V. (ADH) launched a joint appeal to support the crisis-affected population of Syria. Since then, humanitarian organisations have become increasingly concerned about the continuity of their aid to all affected persons in Syria. This concern is not limited to Syria itself, but also neighbouring states. Syria is one of four countries in the world with extreme access constraints for humanitarian assistance to reach crisis-affected populations. During the 2016 negotiations at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Resolution 2533 secured a border crossing into Idlib for humanitarian purposes. This resolution is set to end in July 2021. Its termination presents an imminent threat to humanitarian assistance, which depends on cross-border access. Neighbouring country Lebanon is also considered to have high access constraints.

The purpose of this evaluation, commissioned by ADH, was to determine the extent to which limited or no direct access to target groups at the local level has affected project and programme strategies in the Syria refugee crisis response. This evaluation focused on nine projects implemented in Syria and Lebanon by nine ADH-funded member organisations (MOs) and their implementing partners (IPs). Each project provided people affected by the Syrian refugee crisis with essential humanitarian aid, including WASH and medical services, shelter and vocational training. Without evaluating the activities and outcomes of the programmes themselves, this evaluation is entirely focused on drawing lessons learned based on each MO and IP’s unique experiences on remote humanitarian management.

Methodology

The evaluation used a participatory and user-oriented approach to increase the likelihood that MOs and their IPs will take the resulting lessons learnt and recommendations forward to improve their programming. The evaluation objectives have been met through a qualitative and quantitative participatory approach, including an extensive desk review, semi-structured interviews with 26 key informants, 12 focus group discussions and an online survey with 22 respondents. All data was coded using a coding matrix in Excel.

Findings

The evaluation findings revolve around the two key evaluation questions: 1. What approaches, methods and strategies have been used by ADH MOs to expand or preserve access to target groups? 2. Given the access constraints, to what extent have ADH MOs been able to operate, across the project cycle, in an accountable and effective manner?

Approaches to expand or preserve access

Policies, programmes and processes

Being part of a coordination group is the most common strategy to gain humanitarian access through persuasion. Being part of a coordination group can help build trust among organisations, which in some instances resulted in organisations being able to help each other in gaining access to crisis-affected households. There was no consensus on the effectiveness of the Access Working Group (AWG). Engaging with local authorities is a must when it comes to gaining access and authorisation to intervene. Depending on the areas of implementation, these authorities are more or less formal or internationally recognised. Yet all IPs mentioned actively coordinating with them to gain access. One of the reasons for the success of such engagement is the longevity of the relationships between the organisations and the local authorities. In two instances, key informants reported having to change implementation areas after refusing to favourably meet local authorities or camp management requests vis-à-vis targeting or bribes. To negotiate with those who control access, being in a position to explain the humanitarian principles to which one adheres is pivotal. All focus groups were able to demonstrate how these principles should translate through programme design (e.g., transparency of targeting, targeting those in needs, etc.). Explaining and standing by these principles has successfully been used by MOs to refuse paying bribes to the local authorities. This is highlighted as the most sustainable approach by several organisations.

Building acceptance among community members was both a way to gain access and a way to mitigate security risks and therefore preserve access. Building acceptance among community members is also used by organisations to gain recognition. The strategies used by IPs to achieve this mostly stem from quality work and relevant interventions aimed at responding to households’ needs.

Sharing roles and responsibilities is a popular strategy to gain or expand access. MOs relied on their IPs to receive approvals from local authorities. IPs have been active on the ground since before the ADH-funded response and as such have pre-existing relationships and anchorage that can be leveraged for the ADH project. IPs had decision-making power in various communication forums. This power gave IPs more confidence to communicate with their MOs as communication was structured around discussions, rather than relaying of information. Both MOs and IPs felt to have a shared a common risk management approach. Organisations shared staff recruitment strategies, related to staff origin, language, gender and religion as a way to gain better access. The most effective trait is reportedly to come from the community itself, which stands true both in Lebanon and in Syria, and goes with language skills be it Arabic or Kurdish. Recruiting female staff was cited by most organisations to gain access to female household members. The effectiveness of targeting is one of the strategies that raised the higher degree of disagreement between IPs and MOs. During KIIs and FGD, challenges were highlighted as to the influence local authorities sometimes try to have on geographical targeting and even on household level targeting. The COVID-19 pandemic added an extra layer to an already access-constrained environment. MOs and IPs already operating in an access constrained environment were well prepared to continue and adjust activities in time of COVID-19. For the most part, IPs could continue to access the affected population during the pandemic.

Source: Aktion Deutschland Hilft