OBJECTIVE
Adapt Delivery to COVID-19
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt acutely by the world’s most vulnerable communities, particularly refugees, the displaced and those impacted by conflict and instability. It has been ARK’s primary goal throughout 2020 to ensure that we adapt delivery to this new operational challenge and continue to support those communities and partners we are so proud to work with.
Building resilience and sustainable livelihood opportunities in Yemen
Conflict combined with Covid-19 have exacerbated the vulnerability of people in Yemen. More than one million more people in Yemen will face acute food insecurity by the end of 2020, making a degree of self-sufficiency critical for local communities. As a result, we worked with partners across Yemen to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities. Our belief is that increased employment opportunities like these will build resilience within vulnerable communities in Yemen.
Understanding the Impact of Covid-19 on Civil Society in Morocco
Working with 12 NGOs and five research centres throughout Morocco, we launched a research project exploring the impact of Covid-19 and governmental responses to the pandemic, integrating citizen’s views as action-research projects were designed with beneficiaries’ input, based on a rapid participatory appraisal (RPA) methodology that puts beneficiaries (citizens) at the heart of public policy research. Research areas including social services (social protection & psycho-social), civil rights (women’s and human rights), private sector development, education and health will then form the basis of advocacy projects delivered in 2021.
Reaching Vulnerable Iraqis
Our Iraqi partners conducted an on and offline Covid-19 response campaign targeting vulnerable individuals in Mosul city centre. The team purchased, packed and distributed aid boxes filled with food and sanitisers. Included in the distribution effort were special boxes filled with products catering specifically to women’s needs.
The Refugees Making PPE in Lebanon: A Sustainable Public Health Initiative
Responding to the spread of COVID-19 in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, ARK’s partners the Palestinian NGO, Ahlam Laje’ and local volunteer Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) teams created a workshop to produce PPE conforming to WHO standards. Using an initial grant from the UK Embassy in Lebanon, our teams imported machinery from Germany and material from Saudi Arabia. As well as masks the teams produced protective suits for volunteers who were carrying out sanitation campaigns in the camps. This delivery approach ensured that masks were given away free to vulnerable Syrian, Iraqi and Palestinian refugees living in the camps, as well as near-camp Lebanese communities unable to afford PPE. The remainder were sold at highly competitive prices, generating revenue that could then be reinvested in new materials, as well as contribute to the operational costs of both partner groups, ensuring sustainability.
Hybrid Training in Jordan: Working through Lockdown
We were engaged on a project designed to enhance the Jordanian Gendarmerie’s Critical Incident Response Capabilities through Gender Integration. The training conducted between March and November 2020 was Covid 19-compliant and delivered using two classrooms, social distancing, pre-course medical checks, screening, and the use of PPE. Following the re-opening of the international airport in September 2020, our SMEs returned to Jordan. Following a fourteen-day quarantine, training activities resumed with a Train the Trainer (TtT) Tactical Firearms and Search course and a Foundation Tactical Medic course. In a similar fashion, when delivering training to government clients around the world in person became unfeasible, we implemented a cyber-secure virtual learning environment with all the normal elements of a classroom such as white boards, break-out rooms, and screen sharing. The virtual classroom also contains a lab environment which allows students to access the software they are being trained on and interact with their instructor.
Augmenting physical with virtual space in Jordan
Jordanians were placed under one of the world’s strictest Covid-19 measures – lockdowns, curfews, driving bans and governorates cut off from others. These restrictions brought the topic of one our Jordanian projects into sharp relief, that of public space. Our project was originally designed to provide more physical safe spaces to ameliorate tensions and youth anxiety… so, how then could we continue when the very idea of ‘socialising’ was all but banned? The project moved online. Along with our partners we were able to create and build a community-focused youth platform, hosted on social media, and curated by Jordanian youth in target cities. The platform flourished, and quickly became a virtual meeting place for Jordanian youth to share ideas, debate, celebrate creativity, activity and socialise.
Adapting Survey Methods to Remain Covid-19 Compliant
To minimise risk related to the transmission of COVID-19 in Lebanon, we adopted the use of a remote method of data collection for the nationwide social tensions research we undertake for UNDP. The approach to sampling and surveying was adapted from recent innovations in the Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) method. Like snowball sampling, RDS relies on chain referral for the recruitment of individuals into the sample (a non-random method of recruitment); however, unlike snowball sampling, RDS is grounded in statistical theory. We also included questions related to the impact of Covid-19 and the government’s response to it to assess the impact of the pandemic on vulnerability and social cohesion.