Community Protection Monitoring in Besieged and Hard-to-Reach CCSD’s Community Protection Monitoring in Besieged and Hard-to-Reach (HTR) Areas aims to improve the safety of vulnerable populations by building the capacity of new protection monitors and enhancing formalised protection networks in new areas to collect, verify and analyse protection needs in coordination with the Protection Monitoring Task Force (PMTF). This new dedicated protection monitoring network will also work with local communities to establish community-based protection mechanisms and referral systems thus linking this project to the following two Protection Cluster 2017 strategies: (ii) Enhancing the capacity of local authorities, humanitarian actors and community members to identify and mitigate protection threats through targeted capacity-building initiatives, and (iii) Enhancing community-based protection, including support to self-protection mechanisms at community level. The proposed project will take place over nine months, with project activities covering up to seven months. It will be carried out in coordination with the PMTF in order to avoid duplication and to enhance an overall understanding of protection needs across diverse areas of Syria. CCSD will train 21 new protection monitors (13 will be men and 8 will be women) using PMTF data collection tools and indicators and, in addition to our own reporting, will contribute to the regular monthly reports of the PMTF as well as their ad hoc/rapid protection reports. 

The 21 protection monitors will be recruited from and will work in sub-districts in the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Hama, Homs, and Rural Damascus. Specific areas for monitoring will be decided in consultation with the PMTF and CCSD will coordinate with cluster members to ensure there is no overlap in coverage. If protection monitors cannot access initial target areas CCSD will identify alternative project locations in each of the sub-districts and governorates in consultation with the PMTF. CCSD’s large network on the ground in Syria, which includes 50 personnel and over 2,000 volunteers, enables us to gain access to new areas and flexibly tailor programming in a rapid manner. The new protection monitors will expand the geographic coverage of cluster partners by providing rapid protection assessments for areas where there have been out dated or no assessments. Outputs will include up-to-date assessments in addition to at least four protection reports on the protection needs of each monitored community that will be uploaded to the PMTF database. Additionally, CCSD will also produce our own advocacy reports and rapid response reports. Rapid response reports will be published on the urgent protection needs of monitored communities on an ad hoc basis, while advocacy reports will convey local communities’ recommendations to national or international decision makers and be sent directly to decision-makers with which CCSD has communication.

This project intends to benefit multiple communities in the sub-districts identified and will disaggregate data based on gender, among other factors. All activities will be conducted in a gender sensitive manner. This will be ensured by training all monitors on gender-sensitivity and gender mainstreaming and by establishing gender-sensitive protocols, procedures and material. Reporting, advocacy and community-based protection mechanisms will all be accomplished in ways that analyse and address the specific protection risks faced by women and girls. By doing so the program intends to increase the Gender Based Violence (GBV) response coverage by strengthening referral systems. This will enhance the protection of women and girls by expanding GBV service coverage and therefore increasing the number of beneficiaries. The proposed program is cost effective, leveraging CCSD’s existing operations, resources, and nearly five-year history of working in the proposed communities.