Localised Resilience in Action: Responding to the Regional Syria Crisis

The Syria crisis has entered its ninth year and resulted in over 5.6 million refugees living in neighboring countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt). To respond to the crisis, the Regional Refugee and Resilience Response Plan (3RP), co-led by UNDP and UNHCR, was formed in 2015 to assist both refugees and host communities, and a unique feature of the 3RP is strong national leadership - that host governments drive the response in each of the host countries, supported by international efforts. The 3RP brings together more than 270 partners, under the overall stewardship of the host governments, to assist those who are affected by the Syria crisis.

This study looks at commitments made at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) under the Grand Bargain and provides an overview of good practices on localisation approaches, provides a number of case studies from the regional response and makes recommendations on how to further strengthen leadership and participation of national and local actors within the response to the Syria crisis.

While much progress has been made, additional efforts can be made to meet WHS commitments, including in terms of quality of partnership, funding allocation and building capacities of local partners and the participation of local actors (include gender representation) in influencing policies and programming. This report highlights how progress on the ground in new policy & approaches towards the humanitarian/development nexus can be accelerated within a co-led response plan framework.