ACTED’s Regional Coordination Office, based in Amman, both actively supports specific interventions implemented in Iraq, the Palestinian Territories,  Jordan, as well as in Libya, and develops regional scale interventions aimed at defining a joint regional approach to issues and themes which are common to the countries and increase the visibility and relevance of our intervention.

2010

While 2010 saw a downscale in violence in Iraq, we maintained our support to local and displaced populations affected by conflict in the North and South of the country, and extended our scope of intervention to 4 new provinces, allowing for access to drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and basic items. However, more than in previous years, our methodology evolved towards working more with communities rather than vulnerable households to foster a LRRD approach and set the path for development-oriented programs in the years to come. In Gaza, we continued fresh product distributions in response to the siege imposed by Israeli authorities.

Helping populations manage their families’ needs through capacity building continued as in previous years. In Iraq, our teams supported asset recovery by fostering income generating activities, through the implementation of wide-scale infrastructure rehabilitation programs, Cash for Work as well as vocational training, apprenticeships and training centers for women to sustain a gender approach and offer them the means to address their own needs. Farmers were also supported by rehabilitating irrigation networks. In the West Bank, linkages created with farmers and herders were built upon to sustain their activities, and that of agricultural cooperatives at a later stage. In Gaza, ACTED contributed to community infrastructure rehabilitation to ease the return to a normal life.

We developed new interventions in continuity of previous initiatives. 2010 thus saw the introduction of ACTED’s Child Friendly Spaces, allowing children, youth and even the greater community to have a safe place to develop remedial, vocational and other life skills. In Gaza, ACTED completed a large program for kindergartens with psychosocial support.

A regional approachn with Amman and Dubaï

Throughout the year, and from Amman’s hub, our regional team contributed directly to these operations as well as promoting them from Amman and our support office in Dubai, whose aim is also to support our interventions in Afghanistan. In this context, our regional coordination office focused on setting up and developing partnerships at both local and regional levels, with increased presence and participation in conferences and other events related to humanitarian aid in Dubai. We maintained our presence in Lebanon where our office supported the region in strengthening and training on our procedures. The region also supported our global efforts in addressing emergencies in Haiti and Kyrgyzstan.

The definition of a regional strategy aimed at addressing the issue of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees was maintained with assessments conducted and an intervention planned to be launched in 2011 in Syria and Jordan. A systemized follow up of humanitarian emergencies was put in place in both our areas of intervention, and other countries, such as in Yemen.

2011

Our regional office is supporting the development of new programs in Jordan and Syria in the field of support to Iraqi refugees and reproductive health. With ACTED’s strategy evolving in the region, priorities are the following:

• To set up sustainable solutions to improve the living conditions of refugee and displaced populations in an integrated regional approach,
• To support the transition from early recovery to medium and longer term solutions for livelihoods and agriculture in our countries of intervention,
• To maintain an emergency response capacity,
• To build the capacity of our partners through joint programming,
• To strengthen advocacy at national and international levels on humanitarian issues.

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