Highlights

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The Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) is calling for experiences on Local Economic Development (LED) for communities hosting refugees for the publication of its second Compendium.

In the framework of its Refugees and Host Communities Program and following the second annual Workshop of the Host Municipalities Learning Network (May 2017), the CMI will develop a second Compendium of Experiences in Hosting Refugees focused on enhancing Local Economic Development (LED) in forced displacement contexts.

Eligible applicants can submit their application by downloading and filling the template (see below) with all relevant information on their experience in either English or Arabic and send it to: gborriello@worldbank.org copying refugees@cmimarseille.org, indicating as object “Call for LED experiences – submission”. Handwritten or incomplete forms will not be considered.

The call for experiences will be open until Friday, December 1^st.

Successful applicants will be notified by the end of December 2017.

Please refer to the Guidance Note (below) for eligibility, selection criteria, and complementary information.

More information on the CMI Refugees and Host Communities Program: http://bit.ly/2wVO2Qb

More information on the Mediterranean Host Municipalities Learning Network: http://bit.ly/2wCEj1n

Guidance Note for Applicants

Context and Rationale

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Syria’s neighboring countries are coping with a very high influx of refugees. In 6 years of the Syrian conflict, local governments had to develop extraordinary resources and solutions to host refugees and insure the common delivery service to their inhabitants. Local communities are at the forefront of the crisis, as a high refugee influx has impacts on population growth, demand on goods and services, and social cohesion, leading to several challenges to the welfare of both host communities and refugees. Municipal staff and elected representatives looking for innovation and solutions when hosting refugees do not often have enough resources to learn about other experiences and successful projects.
 

To fill this gap, the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) developed in 2016-2017 a “Compendium of Best Practices in Hosting Refugees” designed for knowledge- and experience-sharing among municipalities most impacted by the refugee influx. This Compendium was developed in the context of the Refugees and Host Communities Program, which facilitates a Mediterranean Host Municipalities Learning Network to strengthen peer-learning and knowledge-sharing on priority themes identified by communities hosting a high number of refugees, through face to face and virtual workshops, online exchanges and knowledge products.
 

Following the second annual network’s Workshop on Local Economic Development (May 2017, Lebanon), the CMI will develop a second Compendium of Experiences in Hosting Refugees.  It will reflect CMI’s programmatic theme in FY18: as most refugees are hosted in cities or rural communities rather than in camp settings, an approach focused on LED would help strengthening local economic growth for the benefit of both refugees and their hosts. In particular, local actors who participated to the Network’s Annual Workshop identified a series of challenges, objectives, and priorities in dealing with the high refugee influx: strategic planning for LED, private sector opportunities, skills and capacity development, and regulations and policies.
 

This forthcoming Compendium will serve to share relevant examples in hosting refugees in the Mediterranean Region with a focus on LED. It will aim to a further knowledge- and experience-sharing among host communities in the Middle East, Turkey, and relevant European host communities, and strengthened implementation of capacity building in forced displacement contexts; support the replication of good practices in other communities hosting refugees through a peer-learning approach; and an enhanced reflection among host communities and partners on what is needed for ensuring a livable environment for both refugees and their hosts, for identification of successes, errors, main gaps, and areas of support.

Eligibility of Experiences

Experiences must target either communities hosting Syrian refugees, or both Syrian refugees and their hosts. They can be implemented by:
 

i.   Local Governments (e.g. Municipalities, Union of Municipalities, Municipal Departments, Regional authority, Governorate, etc.),

ii.  Local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Associations, and other local stakeholders, or

iii. Other development partners in close collaboration with local stakeholders.

In the selection process, priority will be given to i) and ii), so to privilege an experience-sharing strongly based on the ownership of local actors.

Experiences from Syria’s neighboring countries (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Palestine), and North African and European countries (based on relevance to the Syrian refugee issue) will be accepted for selection.

Selection Criteria

• Relevance: the experiences must be relevant to strengthened Local Economic Development (LED) of the targeted area (e.g. economic governance and policies for LED, strategic planning, training and job creation, etc., as well as transversal themes leading to an increased LED).
• Evidence: the experiences must demonstrate a response to the actual needs of the targeted population. An internal assessment and/or feedback from who benefitted from the experience is desirable so to assess the effect of the project on the targeted population. For ongoing projects, a mid-term assessment can be sufficient.
• Innovation: the experiences must show innovative aspects in the concept and/or process.
• Collaboration: the experiences must be carried out in collaboration among different actors, specifically among local actors and local stakeholders, as well as collaboration with and involvement of the targeted population.
• Transferability: the experiences must show a potential for learning (clear identification of lessons learned -both successes and failures- and recommendations) and replication in other host communities, if successful. This criterion includes the level of change adaptation, financial and human resources sustainability, and knowledge transferability of the experience.
• Sustainability and local ownership: the experiences must have a good level of sustainability and must be carried out by local actors for enhanced local ownership, as for most municipalities financing and human resources are the main constraints in implementing good practices in forced displacement contexts.

Submission

In order to participate to this call, please download and fill in the below template (available in either English or Arabic) in all of its parts, and send it to gborriello@worldbank.org copying refugees@cmimarseille.org, indicating as object “Call for LED experiences – submission” before Friday, December 1^st.

Contacts

For any question or inquiry: gborriello@worldbank.org

Resources:

• Template EN
• Template AR