Almost 4 million people have fled Syria since the outbreak of the civil war, 1.2 million of whom are refugees in Lebanon -that is, about one in five people living in Lebanon is a refugee from the Syrian war. The present report analyses the impact of the Syrian conflict and refugee crisis on Lebanon and Lebanese host communities.
This brief analysis presents the main conflict issues and trends, and the network of interaction between local and national level conflict dynamics. It provides an overview of key actors relevant to addressing intercommunal conflict and draws some programming implications, for both conflict sensitivity of current programming and further opportunities for conflict transformation.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, almost 1.2 million Syrians have sought refuge in Lebanon1. Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) with its partner International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has been providing assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon and host communities since January 2014. This includes good in kind to refugees as well as the rehabilitation of water and sanitation infrastructure in schools and clinics, and hygiene promotion program in schools. Geographically, programmes are implemented in the North (Bebnine, Akkar, Tripoli, Khoura, Dinnieh), South (Zahle Caze, Bint Jbeil, Nabatiyyeh) and in the Bekaa Valley (Bar Elias, West Bekaa Caza).
In the light of the size of influx of refugees from Syria to Lebanon, the very difficult humanitarian context inside Syria and the volume of humanitarian assistance provided, NCA found it important to conduct a conflict analysis of the Syrian refugee crisis, the humanitarian interventions and the related transfer of resources, and its impact on the Lebanon and the Lebanese host communities – especially those being targeted by NCA programmes.
Along with being a conflict-sensitive programming tool, to ensure that programmes ‘Do No Harm’, this Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) conflict analysis also aims at serving as a necessary entry point for working on the conflict, facilitating suitable forms of peacebuilding interventions.
