UN relief agencies initiate collective response

Development efforts complement humanitarian aid

Representatives of 22 UN agencies launched a collective “development response” for Lebanon and neighboring countries to complement ongoing aid to displaced Syrian refugees and local populations.

UN agencies’ representatives agreed in a recent joint meeting that economic stabilization costs resulting from the crisis are beyond State capacity in all affected countries, and called for a ‘resilience-based development response’.

The response will involve demands on basic services (including the stress on housing and land markets), reversing downward economic trends (such as the degradation of infrastructure, unemployment, and social tensions), and sustaining institutions and capacities to anticipate and manage future shocks.

Sima Bahous, Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said: “While we continue to provide essential humanitarian support, we must as well attend to development needs in a manner that is complementary, simultaneous and urgent.”

Priority will be given to income-generating opportunities and employment through access to markets and financial services. Efforts will seek to stimulate productive investments and promote private sector engagement.

Relief agencies will support government efforts at the national and sub-national levels to guarantee quality housing and basic services such as water, sanitation, energy, and waste removal.

They will work on strengthening municipal authorities, and improve locals’ capacity to engage with authorities to ensure delivery of social services. On another level, they will promote peaceful coexistence within conflict-affected communities.

A series of guidelines will be adopted to implement the necessary action plans, in parallel with financing channels to coordinate humanitarian and development action.