Conflict sensitive needs assessment - Maps of risks and resources

Personal Testimony I am Kareem, I am 23 years old, I am President of Jamayia Chabab Moutahiddin, a youth association of Aarsal, in the Bekaa region. I have two brothers: Mounir, 17, and Abdallah, 10. Since 5 years I am part of the association, we did a lot of activities for the youth in our region. We have contributed, for instance, to the building of a youth Centre, supporting conflict prevention projects through employment, sport and culture interventions. When the crisis started, the “panorama� changed but we did not. We are all still here, and we have capacities and ideas to continue our work in the community. The pressure on the public services and employment has increased because of the refugee flow. Lots of my young friends lost their jobs, and it became harder to access health services in the primary health care centre because of the Syrian refugees. Mounir and Abdallah continue to go to public school, but the quality of the teaching has changed in addition to the attention of the teachers which has decreased, because of the need to attend the new pupils coming from Syria. Because of that, Mounir, who wants to be an engineer, is worried about the possibility to go to university in two years.

Emergency interventions help us to better face the crisis and to welcome our Syrians friends in our communities, but some actions even allow us to be stronger to face crisis, and to seek a better future. For example, my friends from other local associations, together with local representatives of ministries of Youth and Sports and Culture as well as some small young entrepreneurs, have a lot of ideas for our village to face the crisis. At the end, we know what we need, we are able to think and even innovate, and when all the partners are gone, we will be the ones to stay. But we did not know how to share these ideas with other institutions, like the municipality, ministries or international cooperation.

We did not know until last month, when my association was invited by the Mayor to participate in a meeting with representatives from all the sectors, both public and private, to participate in the identification of the priorities of our community, and the possible solutions to our needs, with the elaboration of a map of risks and resources. Together, we were able to identify common needs, risks, and solutions for the elaboration of potential projects, on the basis of our capacities and previous plans to solve problems, taking into consideration the impact of the Syrian crisis, how to face the crisis and how to prepare ourselves to a better future.

With the support of UNDP, our mayor and community representatives could submit our map of risks and resources with the identified priorities to national government and international cooperation. We also could elaborate and implement projects that give a first answer to our needs. These projects benefit from a strong ownership

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within the community, because we all participated in them. I think this is a good way to better face the current crisis and the ones to come, if there are any; and to prepare ourselves to build a better future all together.

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Context The impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon is reaching a scale unprecedented in the history of complex, refugee-driven emergencies. While in April 2012, 32,800 refugees were registered or awaiting registration with UNHCR, by March 2014 that figure had jumped sharply to over 1,000,000. To contextualize the impact further, Lebanon was already one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with an average of over 400 people per square km of land. This sudden and large influx of refugees from Syria is now placing enormous pressure on the country and its people, especially those in the poorest areas, where refugee concentrations have been greatest.

The crisis is not only challenging the country’s existing social and economic infrastructure, it is exacerbating significant development deficiencies such as unemployment, especially among women and youth, and profound disparities between the wealthy and the poor. In addition, the crisis brings to Lebanon a set of new tensions that threaten to undermine Lebanon’s delicate social and political balance of power while amplifying pre-existing inter Lebanese divisions and provoking increasingly negative reactions against the Syrian refugee presence.

A summary of channels through which the Syrian crisis is impacting Lebanon follows:

Impact on Local Authorities and Municipal Services Increased refugee populations are putting enormous pressure on water, sanitation, waste management, education, and health care systems. Local authorities are faced with situations where the needs have grown exponentially. The current structures are not equipped and capacitated to provide those services.

Macro and Micro-Economic Impact The Syrian crisis has had a severe impact on the Lebanese economy at all levels, negatively affecting key sectors such as trade, tourism, real estate, energy, and construction. This attributed to plummeting investors’ confidence due to uncertainty about the security situation, as well as the closure of strategic export routes for Lebanese products to Syria and the Gulf countries. Real GDP growth rates have plummeted, with an expected loss of nearly three percentage points for each year over the 2012-2014 period due to the crisis. The financial deficit resulting from decreased revenue and increased expenditure on public services has been projected at around USD 2.6 billion.

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Environmental Impact The environmental impact of the increase in Lebanon’s population is having severe consequences on environmental and water quality, solid waste management, urban sprawl and scarce energy resources in Lebanon. Notably, among basic services, solid waste management falls most directly within the mandate of municipal budgets, leaving many communities desperate for means to address the rapidly worsening situation.

Impact on Employment and Livelihoods By end of 2014, as a result of the Syrian crisis, 170,000 additional Lebanese will be pushed into poverty, an increase of nearly 20%. Furthermore, an additional 220,000 - 324,000 Lebanese are expected to lose their jobs, representing a doubling in unemployment levels, with the greatest impact falling on youth, women and the unskilled. Border communities who have depended on Syria for health, trade, and education services have been especially affected due to the simultaneous loss of access to these resources and the high burden of hosting refugees.

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Impact on Social Cohesion Tensions at the community level are on a sharp rise as Lebanese find themselves competing with Syrians for employment and increasingly scarce means of ensuring livelihoods, while security concerns are deepening the situation. The armed involvement of different Lebanese groups in Syria has deepened divisions throughout the country, already suffering from a politically paralyzed government.

A number of studies, including recent efforts from the American University of Beirut and the Norwegian Research Foundation, FAFO, have underscored the potentially lethal combination of political conflict in the context of increasing number of refugees and a delicate confessional balance of power.

Despite these many challenges, the Lebanese people have kept their borders, homes, and communities open, showing remarkable generosity and solidarity. Extraordinary measures have been taken to care for families fleeing from the horrors of war. Despite the growing incidents of tension and violence, the major political and sectarian groups have remained committed to a united Lebanon, struggling to resist returning to the civil war of the past. Yet the capacity of communities to remain resilient is under serious threat.

A growing consensus among national and international stakeholders is therefore focusing on the need to reframe the current challenges facing Lebanon as being both humanitarian and multidimensional, requiring bridges between humanitarian action and medium / long term support to resilience and development.

The Identification of Needs and Resources: The Maps of Risks and Resources The collective analysis of the needs and problems of a particular community inorder to identify ways of improving living conditions can be carried out by means of a very simple, practical and easily replicated methodology: community Maps of Risk And Resources (MRR). This can be used to facilitate dialogue and collaboration between different actors and competent institutions in the search for common actions that can be taken to solve what are considered to be priority problems.

The application of the MRR methodology in the community takes place in four stages: (1) an exchange of experiences is organised, which is also used to valorise the community’s historical memory; (2) field research is carried out to map identified risks and resources which can be tackled; (3) projects are defined to solve the identified priority problems and reduce community risks and vulnerability; and (4) the projects are implemented with the contribution of the public sector and social actors, and activities are carried out to find which resources are lacking in the community. In this process, the concrete implementation of identified projects represents an essential stage in strengthening people’s participatory and confidence in the institutions.

The success of the MRR methodology is due to the fact that it reverses normal vertical intervention mechanisms and boosts the role of communities in the analysis of needs and the identification of the best and most culturally appropriate solutions. Authorities and local institutions play an important role in map production processes and the development of projects that solve identified problems, thus establishing more constructive relations between the population and institutions.

The term ‘community’ refers not only to the population but also to all local actors: public institutions and administrations, services, schools, territorial associations, trade unions, and the private sector.

The MRR methodology involves setting up initiatives capable of benefiting all the interlocutors concerned and fostering mediation when necessary. The negotiated programming approach plays an important role in the map methodology. When many actors are involved, the decision to adopt one solution rather than another to tackle an identified problem always involves a process of negotiation to mediate between the various interests involved.

The MRR methodology involves discussions between the experts and the three fundamental actors of the community: the citizens, community organization’s and

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local institutions. In this way it is possible to identify solutions that are sustainable from the social, technical, economic and cultural points of view. Another important methodological aspect is that the actors mentioned look for the causes of the problems and identify solutions that are preferably structural. Finally, a proper application of MRR helps identify solutions within the framework of a local community’s specific culture, valorising its human, material, and immaterial heritage.

Objectives of the Maps of Risks and Resources In the start-up phase, MRR involves the communities in the production of the first Action Plan. The maps foster the broadest participation of all groups of the population in the identification of the problems and their solutions, which are translated into local impact projects which are then incorporated into the plan.

While the more complicated process of programming is carried out at regional and municipal level, the communities carry out the more specific activities of developing local projects. In this way, the Programme provides a concrete opportunity for the experimentation of participatory methodologies and encourages local actors to become involved in the overall development process. Another important added value is that this methodology provides an opportunity for the qualitative analysis of territorial problems. Experts and technicians that manage the Programme acquire a broader view of problems when they are defined by the people from their point of view.

In normal programme activities, they help establish a process for the integral development of communities that have less access to services and opportunities.

Territories that are most at risk or isolated and with high rates of poverty are always identified in regional and municipal planning. The needs of these communities must be addressed by integrated responses and above all better local organisation so that local actors can take advantage of existing development potentialities.

The MRR methodology fosters the development of better local organisation and gives the community a leading role in finding the solutions to its problems, in collaboration with all institutions mobilised at the regional and municipal level.

In normal development activities, when specific thematic risks and solutions need to be analysed and identified. The MRR methodology can be of great help in the preparation of local emergency plans with an integral approach because the interdependence of community risks and development factors is always evident.

Work Organization: Preparation of Maps of Risks and Resources The MRR programmes are implemented through municipal Working Groups, which are responsible for producing local action plans. The maps are used within the framework of these Working Groups, as instruments to facilitate the active participation of social actors in the processes of programming and managing crisis and development.

For the preparation of the MRR, the communities are identified based on vulnerability criteria selected by UNDP. Furthermore, each community establishes a Working Group bringing together different actors representative of the public and private sectors.

This step is followed by the selection of a location accessible to everybody.

During the meeting, the methodology of the MRR and its objectives are explained to the Working Group composed of civil society representatives, local government and institutions.

The exercise of MRR allows the Working Group to exchange ideas related to risks/problems, to propose suggestions/solutions based on the real needs of the community for the identification of shared priorities.

At the end of the exercise, the Group Focal Point is appointed based on his capacity for facilitation, intermediation and animation.

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The Creation of Maps of Risks and Resources First Stage:

The Risks and Resources Analysis and Basic Information

The Working Group begins by promoting a wide-ranging debate in the community leading to the preliminary identification of risks and resources. It organises an initial meeting to which all the community’s social groups are invited.

The schedule will include a series of meetings to work on the preliminary identification of the risks faced by the community. The meetings, which will provide an opportunity for the participants to exchange experiences, should be conducted as simply as possible to allow everyone to express their opinions.

The team leader’s role is to facilitate the active participation of everyone and at the same time stimulate discussion so that participants discuss the greatest number of factors affecting the quality of life of the community. In this task, the participants point out what in their opinion are the most important problems they have to deal with and resolve in their lives. A useful way of getting things started is to hold a wide-ranging, spontaneous discussion on the priority risks identified by the various groups.

In the first debate, the groups should be guided towards the identification of risks that affect their normal lives and the risk of extraordinary events such as the impact of the crisis in the community.

First Risk List In other meetings called by the Working Group, each social group gives a list of risks and resources that reflect their situation, interests and living conditions, as well as their level of information and critical capacity. As discussions progress, in meetings or homogeneous groups, the main categories of community risk can begin to be identified and included in a first list.

In this work, the team leader plays an important role in drawing attention to categories of risks that have not been highlighted, perhaps because the people are used to them or because they do not think they are capable of addressing them.

The past experience of risks which have turned into a crisis represents a common factor that involves everybody and an analysis that will lead to the identification

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Barr Elias Municipality Identified Risks HEALTH • Possibility of the spreading of diseases that could increase during summer time, and children would be particularly affected.

• Possibility of delivering low quality of health services due to high demands

EDUCATION • Water born diseases • Infection and spreading of diseases in schools • Can influence developmental outcomes including academic achievement, cognitive, social & emotional development • Possibility of long-term impact on child well-being for both Syrian and Lebanese children • Low quality of teaching • Possibility of increase use of violence by the teachers due to the increased pressure • Possibility of violence among students • Possibility of increase in dropout rate and failure among the Lebanese students

AGRICULTURE • Possibility of crop failure due to dehydration • Probability of child labor to support the family

ENVIRONMENT • Competition between Lebanese and Syrian communities on water and soil resources

YOUTH • Possibility of clashes and conflicts especially among the Lebanese and Syrian youth • Possibility of destabilizing an already fragile and volatile situation

of many important elements: the capacity of the community to deal with disasters, the municipal, regional and national interlocutors for the prevention and solution of the problems. Through these discussions the community’s vulnerability to frequent risks can be identified and at the same time an assessment can be made of the community’s level of information and the efficiency of the competent institutions.

Discussion should also focus on the identification of those most exposed to risks, such as women, the elderly, disadvantaged children, the disabled, and people living in extreme poverty. The needs of these groups require particular attention from the community. Map production must always take into account aspects of social vulnerability, so the committee should work towards the identification of groups most vulnerable to risks. The identification of these groups is also important for determining resources and initiatives to improve their living conditions.

Lack of or precarious community defences against risk determine the physical, social and cultural level of vulnerability, which can be defined through qualitative indicators. Different groups, even within the same community, select different priority risks because they may be of different ages, cultural levels, social class, or from different geographical areas. These priorities, which reflect the real needs and group consciousness, must be respected by the team leader, because they will form the basis for future action. At the end of this phase, broad categories of risk will be established, reflecting the contribution of all participants.

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Resource Analysis Once the risks have been identified, the group needs to look at what they do about them within a framework of development. It isn’t just a question of discussing existing and available community resources because the group also exchanges ideas on what could boost its capacity for intervention.

The first outcome of this analysis will be the production of an up-to-date inventory of the human, material, technical and financial resources available to the community. Collective work in looking for resources and concrete, feasible ways of tackling the problems fosters a positive and active attitude in the people involved and gives them the motivation to undertake joint initiatives and social action without waiting for outside help.

Barr Elias Municipality Identified Resources •G overnance Institutions: Municipality, Civil Society Association, and Social Development Centre.

• Health Services: one health Centre supported by the Municipality but with limited availability of medicine and equipment. One small hospital not fully equipped.

• Public services: Water supply, sewage system, electricity (all in need of rehabilitation).

• Educational Services: 1 Public and The second outcome is a list of the 3 private schools, and 1 vocational resources that are lacking, which institution. the community will try to mobilise, in • Cultural Services: 3 Sports playgrounds, collaboration with the committee and 2 public gardens, and 1 cultural centre. the Working Group. It is very important for this research not to exclude any area that fosters community development. However, the idea is not to produce just a general inventory but to look into ways of solving the identified risks.

Second Stage:

The workshop will focus on the identification of the priorities and the projects that the community will be carrying out to address the problems. These projects can be grouped into two broad categories: projects that can be carried out immediately using community resources, and more complex projects which need the backing of institutions and other actors.

Third Stage:

The Production of the Action Plan

After identifying the priorities and the projects, the committee can work on a plan of activities. This plan will be used for all subsequent phases of activities and to monitor the results. The plan is also an instrument for negotiation outside the community.

The next steps are for the committee members to take charge of each activity and identify other interlocutors for each of the priority activities. An analysis will be carried out of the financial resources needed to implement each of the identified projects and the activities required to raise the necessary resources at other levels.

To provide a holistic answer to all needs and involve the greatest number of groups that have taken part in the work, the plan of activities should include initiatives in all areas of local development: - Health and the inclusion of vulnerable groups;

Once the plan has been produced, it will be presented by the committee to the municipal institutions responsible for the planning of local resources and various competent institutions (responsible for health, education, agriculture, etc) and donors.

- Education and vocational training;

Identification of Common Solutions

- Promotion of the environment and improvement of the urban habitat; - Local productive activities.

Discussion and Identification of Priorities The Working Group organizes a workshop to discuss the integral MRR with all local actors. During workshops, the team leader and the homogenous groups present the materials produced during field research: the integral map, the thematic and territorial maps, and other documents. For more complete information, use can be made of all available technical material or materials produced by institutions, such as specialised maps, books, brochures, audiovisual materials, posters, and others, in accordance with the means at the community’s disposal.

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One of the important aims of this methodology is that it facilitates structured communication between communities and institutions responsible for local development processes.

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Fourth Stage:

Implementation of Identified Projects

Immediate Action Projects (Short Term Interventions) Many of the risks identified in the maps can be tackled immediately, with the support of the Working Group, utilising available resources: public and private community resources and international cooperation resources set aside for the purpose.

When a group of people take part in the identification of the risks that threaten them, they see their needs clearly and seek rapid solutions to improve their living conditions. Communities always respond positively, employing all their creativity and capacity in carrying immediate priority initiatives, identified with the support of the institutions that offered collaboration. These projects almost always lead to the planning of more complex initiatives with the public sector. This enables each institution, acting within its specific sphere, to respond and adapt its general programmes to the community’s needs. The specific projects arising from these dynamics will be different in each territory, but what they have in common is that they motivate social groups and establish new active relations with institutions.

Medium/Long Term Development Projects Medium/long term development projects are those which the community can only carry out with the support of municipal, national or/and specialised institutions. Complex risks include the permanent danger of a river flooding, lack of roads, urban decay, frequent outbreaks of illness, and others.

Group discussions on complex community risks will focus on identifying the institutions responsible for tackling the problems and establishing collaboration relationships with them.

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Activity Management During operations, the Working Group will carry out monitoring activities to direct action towards the best results. When a community continues to plan new development projects using continuously updated maps, it means that work has been successful and that a positive climate of exchange has been established in the community.

MRR can be used as an instrument for communication with the population, to inform them of successes and the things that still have to be done.

The maps are updated as results come in and evaluation meetings are organised in committee headquarters, neighbourhoods and community areas involved in the activities. Participatory evaluation means taking into account not only the common criteria of efficient project management to reduce community vulnerability, but also the qualitative criteria of population satisfaction.

A collective evaluation of the activities can be achieved by identifying procedures suited to the specific situation of a community.

It is important to disseminate information on ongoing projects so that results can be appreciated by the community, and new outside actors can be involved in the initiatives. Local radio and television can be used to this end, and public festivals and conferences can be organised.

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Evaluation Criteria As with each intervention, in the application of the methodology, too, it is important to define evaluation parameters in the planning stage. The following are some basic criteria which could be used to assess the impact of the methodology on the territory:

The Replication of the Experience The interest of other organisations and communities in adopting the map methodology is an important factor to bear in mind. If maps are produced in all the communities of a territory, the population’s level of participation in local development activities will be much greater. The number of workshops set up to identify risks and resources gives an indication of how many people over a certain period of time have been involved in collective work. In all territories, there are institutions and organisations which operate to help improve people’s living conditions and for them community participation is both at the heart of and the instrument for their activities. The Working Group can instruct these institutions to produce maps in many communities of the territory. In this way, the capacity for replicating this methodology even after the programme has ended will be installed. The number of institutions in the territory that have learnt to apply the map methodology can represent another important assessment criterion.

Projects Generated The number of projects generated by map production is another important criterion to measure the degree of active community participation. This includes both immediate action projects and more complex projects and the number of people taking part in implementing them. The degree of community participation in direct action to reduce vulnerability represents a way of assessing if a climate of change and greater confidence in the institutions has been fostered.

Promotion of Associations It is an important to verify if the collective experience of map production has fostered the participation of all heterogeneous groups of social actors, generated greater organisational capacity in existing groups, and led to the creation of new groups. Helping the population form associations is strategic because an organised population can take part in all formal negotiations and local development management, in the form of Working Groups, LEDAs and others. The number of economic and social associations generated by map activities and the number

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of people involved in them is an important evaluation criterion. Another aspect is the representativeness of the participants. If producers’ associations or women›s associations have not taken part in the work, this indicates a problem and more efforts will have to be made to involve them. The variety and representativeness of the social groups involved in the operations is another evaluation criterion.

The Participation of Institutions The following areas represent valid criteria for an assessment of the degree of integration between institutions and the population: • •

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The number of community activities in which the population and the competent institutions work together An increase in the use of services and the capacity of users to make specific requests for health care services, training, basic sanitation facilities and others.

The willingness of service personnel to work outside institutional structures and get to know the different realities of a community, using a language that can be understood and adapting specific interventions to the environment in which they operate and the requests of the community.

Change Indices Quantifiable results such as an increase in the number of people accessing the primary health care, a reduction of diseases due the bad waste management, reduction of tensions between the communities, increase access to potable water, decrease in scholastic drop-out, better hygiene conditions among students, and others, are an indication of the effectiveness and impact of the projects carried out. These figures will be collected and processed by competent institutions, which in the case of positive results, can use the methodology in the provision of services.

The Consolidation of the Community Committee Finally, the consolidation of the function of the local committee by all social groups, its effectiveness, operational capacity and degree of community and institutional integration are all important evaluation parameters. Committee participation in discussions promoted by the Programme (Working Groups, thematic committees, and others) gives an indication of whether the dynamics of community development in the framework of regional and municipal development processes have been stably established. A well organised committee can form twinning arrangements with other communities to share experiences and carry out joint projects.

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CONCLUSION MRR is a conflict-sensitive needs assessment methodology for resilience based development. It offers a common ground through which more coherence between humanitarian and development approaches can be achieved in a way that recognises their distinct objectives and principles.

MRR addresses the vulnerability of institutions and individuals to the negative impacts of the demographic and economic shocks and identify what weakens their capacity to withstand, adapt to and recover from them. The process of prioritising responses is based on an understanding of drivers of vulnerability, of capacities that can be supported and of the probable impacts of different responses, in the short and longer terms.

Processes and structures are already in place that can support this analysis and decision-making.

The participatory approach and the close involvement of public and private sector is a way to facilitate the dialogue, collaboration and agreement between stakeholders at local level, reducing the risk of social tension and involving the Community in a common process for finding solutions, with ownership, in an inclusive and participative way, which is sustainable in this time of crisis.

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The results of MRR assessment is an Action Plan where all the community is involved, with roles and responsibilities, and where national and international stakeholders and partners can find the space to integrated intervention, avoiding duplications and supporting an integrated manner to play different but complementary roles.

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