Humanitarian Work and Assessment amidst the Conflict in Syria
Thursday, April 2, 2015 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM EDT
#313, SOAN Conference Room
Sociology Ph.D. Program Brown Bag Presentation and Discussion:
Humanitarian Work and Assessment amidst the Conflict in Syria
Speaker: Randy Salm, Sociology Ph.D. Candidate
Time: Thursday, April 2nd, 3:00-4:30
Place: SOAN Conference Room, Robinson Hall B,
George Mason University, Fairfax Campus
Moderator: Prof. John Dale
Randy will be talking to us about his recent work in Syria.
The Syrian conflict has now entered its fifth year, with 200,000 people killed and widespread destruction throughout the country. Roughly 4 million Syrian are refugees and 12.2 million people are in need of assistance inside Syria, of whom about 7.6 million are internally displaced. Civilians living inside Syria face significant challenges to survival as they negotiate the myriad array of armed groups, shifting alliances, barriers to movement and trade, and shifting social rules and norms. This brown bag briefly summarizes the armed conflict dynamics and the humanitarian response mechanism, and then looks closely at the information challenges of remote humanitarian management, especially assessment and monitoring issues faced by NGOs for understanding the humanitarian needs, concerns and actions of the affected populations in Syria.
Topics to be covered –
* General status of armed conflict – which armed groups control which areas (SNAP, OCHA, INSO)
* Impacts of armed groups on local populations – tactics used by armed groups and their impacts on civilians (HWR, SOHR)
* Humanitarian response coordination (OCHA)
WoS approach and hub system
CWG system – 8 CWGs in Northern Syria
Humanitarian program life cycle – assessment, program design, implementation and evaluation
The challenges of remote humanitarian management
* Humanitarian Assessment methodologies (OCHA, HTAU)
Standardized, coordinated sectoral assessments – quantitative models
Monitoring affected population issues (HTAU) – qualitative models
* HTAU methodology (HTAU)
Objectives
Data sources
Data collection and analysis
Reporting
* Q&A
