After a brief holiday break, our team in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) Regional Centre is ready to continue doing an amazing job delivering various trainings and providing support to humanitarians in the region.
The last quarter of 2024 started with the success of the HX Gaziantep Locally-Led Humanitarian Action conference. More than 200 people representing local Turkish and Syrian NGOs, the UN and governmental agencies attended the conference to build connections, discuss challenges, and exchange best practices. Their positive feedback and appreciation inspire and motivate us to keep creating convening spaces and providing platforms for local voices to be heard.
Delivering learning opportunities
During the last quarter, our MENA team delivered 8 in-person training sessions attended by 174 people involved in humanitarian action in the region. In total, 900 individuals participated in our training sessions throughout 2024.
The trainings were tailored to the needs of local humanitarians and covered essential topics for an effective response, including Humanitarian Operations Programme (HOP), WASH Programming in Emergencies, Crisis Management, Organisational Governance & Structure Training, Education in Emergencies, Finance, Supply Chain, Programme Management Methodology, and more.
21 humanitarian actors from the national and local organisations operating in Northwest Syria joined the five-day HOP Core training delivered in Arabic. The training comprised teaching sessions that covered topics such as Needs Assessment, Accountability, Wellbeing, Introduction to Proposal Writing, and a desk-based scenario, including mentoring and debriefing.
18 senior employees of our partner organisations in Türkiye attended to get insights, useful tools, and practical strategies to optimise their organisations’ governance and structure and to learn how to make processes clearer, more efficient, and sustainable.
To support the Education in Emergencies professionals and encourage cascading of this knowledge, we delivered EiE Refresher session and a Training of Trainers, which was attended by 21 people.
In collaboration with Save the Children International Syria Response Office and Humane Consultancy, we gathered 26 local humanitarian actors in Gaziantep to strengthen their NGOs’ finance operations by building robust financial systems, enhancing budget management skills, and ensuring compliance with donor requirements. Key topics included financial planning, accounting practices, internal controls, and reporting standards.
We supported Humanitarian Academy for Development (HAD) in delivering Resilience, Stress Management and Trauma Risk Management training for 14 Arabic speaking humanitarians in Gaziantep. Training provided a valuable opportunity for participants working with local NGOs a rare opportunity to dive deeply into mental health, where they learned practical tools to identify and manage stress and trauma and undertook a ‘training of trainers’ to enable them to convey their new knowledge and skills to their colleagues.
With the support from Environmental Protection Agency of Syria (EPA), Syria Relief, and Save the Children Syria Response Office, we delivered this training to 32 people from Northwest Syria WASH Cluster partner organisations. The five-day training focused on three main areas: linking WASH with health, nutrition, education, and market-based programming; addressing climate change challenges; and conducting Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA). One month after the training, we conducted a follow-up online session for participants.
We cooperated with Humane Consultancy to deliver the 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 to the organisations supporting the humanitarian response in Northern Syria. 22 people attended the three-day training learning about supply chain strategy, management, and localisation, as well as warehousing and inventory management optimisation. They explored case studies and shared best practices in supply chain management skills.
We supported Save the Children Iraq Country Office team in providing this training to 15 people from local organisations and four Save the Children International staff. The training was also supported by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Through a combination of theoretical sessions and practical exercises, participants gained valuable insights and skills to manage their projects more effectively and enhanced their capacity in project management, monitoring, and evaluation.
Surge Capacity Strengthening Programme
Under the Surge Capacity Strengthening Programme and in partnership with the Aid Fund for Northern Syria (AFNS), we provided Process Consultancy for five Syrian organisations to help them overcome the challenges they face. We engaged experienced senior humanitarian leaders to closely work with and support local leaders in making strategic decisions and enhancing processes. In November, the second Process Consultancy cohort was concluded, with ten more experts ready to provide support to the local organisations.
We have also started the Core Coaching Skills training programme for humanitarian leaders from Türkiye and Syria who want to enhance their leadership skills, cultivate self-awareness, and foster an environment conducive to critical thinking and support. We have finalised the first cohort and now the second cohort is ongoing.
We continue working to set up a roster of coaches, process consultants and digital experts. Preparations are complete to launch a pilot program aimed at assessing, testing, and informing the long-term feasibility and sustainability of the initiative.
Syria Response page
In response to the recent developments in Syria, we created a Syria Response page available in Arabic and English. The page provides resources that are essential to the response such as child protection, security and safety in the field, and more.
We look forward to providing more support to humanitarians in the region in 2025, starting with Crisis Management and MEAL trainings in January.
