For the past six decades,  camps have spawn serious public policy challenges, in the areas of security, control, governance, health, and others. Camps across the region exist in varied conditions and present different dimensions of policy challenges, but they also offer many experiences and lessons that can be shared.

The program on Policy and Governance in Palestinian Refugee Camps is the first integrated and coordinated mechanism to share the vast amount of individual and collective research that exists, while driving cross-sectoral analyses and using the conclusions to enrich policy-making by the various authorities and parties concerned.

Aims
1.  Identify research gaps and launch research projects to fill those most urgently needed.
2. Through conferences, lectures and workshops, bring together researchers from various academic backgrounds and stakeholders from multiple sectors to share their results and draw key policy-relevant conclusions.
3. Provide an ongoing mechanism for scholars, NGOs, host governments, Palestinian groups, camp communities, UNRWA, local authorities, and international donors to meet and exchange ideas on the pressing challenges and the most relevant policy solutions.
5. Compile and maintain a database of research projects and researchers related to the camps.
6. Compile and maintain a database of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and other active groups.

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IFI -UNRWA

A study on school drop-outs in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Dr. Anies Al Hroub from the Department of Education at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, AUB is conducting a research study on school drop-outs in Palestinian refugee camps. The study is co-funded by IFI and UNRWA.

A preliminary review of the available literature and an initial meeting with members of UNRWA, NGOs and academia revealed that 1) there is a vast amount of scattered information on the issue of school drop-outs, and 2) UNRWA schools suffering from low enrollment rates and high drop-out rates can benefit from successful mechanisms applied in other schools.

A study reviewing and analyzing existing literature, tracking their recommendations, and conducting case studies to document implementation mechanisms is important and necessary to design an action-oriented strategy to address the drop-out issue in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.


IFI - AUB

An evaluation of how Qaderoon, a community-based youth intervention in a Palestinian refugee camp, influenced youth mentors who participated in its delivery.

Dr. Jihad Makhoul with Dr. Sawsan Abdulrahim and Dr. Rima Nakkash from the Faculty of Health Sciences at AUB launched a research project in March of 2009 to evaluate the impact of an intervention on a group of youth mentors who participated in its delivery.

Qaderoon is a theory-based youth mental health intervention project with 10-14 year old Palestinian refugee youth who live in Bourj el Barajneh camp. The project tests the impact of a skills-building intervention on improving the mental health of youth, as well as increasing their civic engagement and attachment to school.

The findings will have policy relevance for work with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and promise to provide important insight on the effectiveness of building the skills of young adults when conducting interventions in disadvantaged settings.

Early Marriage in Post-Conflict Nahr el Bared Palestinian Refugee Camp.

A research project by Sonya Knox for her MS thesis in Population Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences at AUB. Advised by Dr. Jocelyn Dejong, Associate Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, the research is about the experiences and perceptions of early marriage in post-conflict Nahr el Bared.

Modes of Governance in the Palestinian Refugee Camps of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territory.

Dr. Sari Hanafi, Program Research Director at IFI and Associate Professor of Sociology at AUB, launched a research project in the spring of 2008 to tackle the question of governance within Palestinian camps.

The research project aims to unfold the relationship between power, sovereignty and space through examining the modes of governance within the refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Palestinian Territory.

The research is timely as the refugee camps have become critical places, raising problems of security and poverty, especially after the armed conflict between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants in Nahr el-Bared, May 2007.

There are many actors that contribute to the different modes of governance, conflict resolution and politics of space. These include the host authorities, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its factions, popular committees and the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) in addition to Islamist groups and different local and political commissars.

For 60 years, the space of the refugee camps has been treated as a space of exception and an experimental laboratory for control and surveillance. Exception is significantly related to the modes of governance in the camps as well as the relationship between the camp and the urban fabric.

Fellows and Affiliates

Taming the Insurgent City: Rethinking the place of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon
Monika Halkort, PhD candidate at Queen's University in Dublin and research affiliate at IFI, is tracing the reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared's impact on the social, political and economic dynamics of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Sabra and Shatila: An examination of self-help and governance structures
Rayyar Farhat , PhD candidate at the Australian National University and research affiliate at IFI, is examining the degree to which self-help and governance initiatives within Sabra and Shatila and the surrounding slum are impacted by the changing structure of the society and the extending Sabra settlement.

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Tara Mahfoud, Program Coordinator
Ext. 4155 ||| Email: tm22@aub.edu.lb

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