Extractive Industries Internship with Mercy Corps Indonesia: Shared Value Partnerships Between Extractive Companies and Local Stakeholders as a Sound Business Investment

Having just completed my 10-week internship with Mercy Corps (MC) Indonesia supporting the organization's work with a project in the extractive industries as part of a public/private shared-value partnership arrangement, I find it important to reflect on and share some aspects of my experience as well as relevant lessons for the field of Conflict Resolution. In fact, this internship was motivated by my interest in and academic focus on the prevention and mitigation of conflicts that may arise from access to, and management of, natural resources.

At the start of my internship, MC had just completed an independent Participatory Community Needs Assessment (or social mapping) of an area that is anticipated will be impacted by the operation of a large extractive industries project.  MC was just getting started to continue its work with on the project by assisting with an exploratory appraisal mission in collaboration with a consulting firm specializing in Indigenous Peoples and aligned social development issues. This appraisal mission came as a first step in a larger process of supporting the project in meeting the performance standards of the International Financial Corporation (IFC).[1] For confidentiality purposes, the project will be referred to as Project X. The consulting firm that solicited MC’s assistance shall be referred to as Y.

MC’s role working on this Project is twofold. First, it is to support consulting firm Y in developing a Public Consultation and Disclosure Plan (PCDP) for Project X in accordance with IFC requirements. A PCDP is intended to ensure the meaningful engagement of the identified project stakeholders through socially and culturally appropriate public consultation, participation, and disclosure. It may therefore be considered both an IFC document as well as a strategic roadmap for the company itself—providing guidance on how to conduct work in a sustainable manner adopting a triple bottom line approach (social, environmental, financial).[2] Second, MC is to partner with consulting firm Y to build the project’s capacity to extend more responsible and needs-based, community-driven community development work through the design and implementation of social investment programs in the targeted geographical area (the extraction site and beyond). 

My internship was therefore structured in the same way. My role as an intern was to assist the Mercy Corps Office Director and Program Manager in the following areas:

• Providing support on developing key components of the PCDP, including the stakeholder analysis (identification, classification and prioritization of stakeholders), the information disclosure framework, the reporting procedures, and the stakeholder engagement principles, objectives and criteria.
• Contributing to the design of appropriate community investment or social investment project proposals tailored to community needs and based on recent social mapping information.

The major portion of my work consisted in working on the PCDP, establishing a plan for the project to comply with IFC Performance Standards (PS) specific to stakeholder engagement. These included primarily:

·      PS1 Social and Environmental Assessment and Management System (including information disclosure, consultation and participation, grievance redress mechanism, and external communication and reporting)

·      PS5 Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement

·      PS7 Indigenous Peoples (providing general guidelines in the event that Project activities are expected to have adverse impacts on Indigenous Peoples).

The task was particularly tedious as the PCDP was intended to be a working document formalizing the project’s commitment to engage stakeholders proactively and in an ongoing manner throughout its lifecycle. The rationale was that this form of relationship with the different stakeholders (local government, village leaders, civil society, etc.) would provide Project X with a ‘social license to operate’ from the local communities in question and ensure its sustainability. 

The objectives of the PCDP—and social performance standards more broadly speaking—link to the shared value partnership rationale that business bottom line is greatly impacted by the quality of the relationship between extractive companies and local communities and governments. In fact, a 2011 International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) paper points to the fact that the greatest losses incurred by extractive companies are caused not by technical issues but rather by tensions/conflicts with local stakeholders. According to the paper, costs have nearly doubled in the last decade for projects operated by the major international oil companies, where “non-technical risks accounted for nearly half of the total risks faced by these companies” with stakeholder-related risks constituting the single largest category. [3] The benefits of building positive and sustainable relationships are made quite obvious and therefore make a good business case for shared value partnerships generating mutual benefits.

Indeed, considerations of the many and varied sources of investment risk are a crucial element for working with the private sector and bridging the gap between business bottom line and community development, which this internship was essentially about. In this sense, shared value partnerships combined with increased corporate and government transparency and accountability are important factors in making sure that natural resource endowments do not turn into a “resource curse” and that their extraction also supports the development goals of the communities concerned. 

With that respect, the second portion of my internship focused on the design of community investment programs that address the development needs of the communities and improve livelihoods in a culturally appropriate and sustainable manner. Where direct project-induced benefits such as employment or revenue sharing are limited, community investment programs come as an alternative source of benefits and value sharing with the communities.

My role specifically, was to develop ‘Assessment’ surveys to gather specific information in order to support the design of three different social investment programs. I focused in particular on a solar cell program, which was devised based on community needs identified in the social mapping previously conducted by MC. My survey for this program was focused on assessing the energy gaps that solar cells could fill (lighting, electrical equipment and mobile phones, cooking) and comparing the costs of the available alternative to solar cells (power generators) with the costs of purchasing and maintaining a solar cell. The survey was also designed to assess households’ ability and willingness to pay for solar cells, and the need for financial literacy training as well as for financial support. The previous social mapping having identified drinking water shortages in specific communities, the survey also attempted to assess the possibility of using solar energy to build a water pump.

My interest in this particular program also incited me to develop an alternative program proposal offering two different approaches: a household-oriented program addressing the needs of communities at the household level, and a centralized power supply approach addressing the needs of the community as a whole.

Overall, this internship experience was, without a doubt, an extremely enriching and stimulating one, allowing me to gain a deeper understanding of what 'shared value partnerships' may mean for communities, government, and the private sector. This was also an opportunity for me to build on my academic training and develop new skills in consulting with the private sector for sustainable development and working on program design and proposal writing.

The Summer Field Program is supported and organized by the Georgetown Conflict Resolution Program. Please visit our website at http://conflictresolution.georgetown.edu.

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[1] According to the IFC’s vision, the IFC finances projects that are expected to contribute to development and poverty reduction in developing countries.

[2] The PCDP focuses mainly on the ‘social’ dimension whereas Project-related environmental aspects are addressed in greater detail in the Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts Assessment as well as in the E&S Action Plan, additional IFC financing requirements. 

[3] “The Costs of Conflict with Local Communities in the Extractive Industry” http://shiftproject.org/sites/default/files/Davis%20&%20Franks_Costs%20of%20Conflict_SRM.pdf

This paper was based on “confidential interviews with over 40 key individuals (primarily from extractive companies but also including industry bodies, corporate law firms, insurers and research institutes) on the costs of company-community conflict.”

Ethics and Global Inequalities in Health Care

I wrote this short piece for a discussion in a forum on ethics and international affairs. It is not related to conflict resolution per se but is an important issue for me as someone who is temporarily working "in the field", as many conflict resolution practitioners do, which is why I decided to cross-post it here.

While sick people of all ages faced with the desolate Liberian health system stay alive only by God’s grace, as they say here, the elderly and sick who wish they could leave the hospitals in Germany to just die in peace, are kept alive with the newest technology and enormous amounts of resources over months or even years, prolonging their suffering.

When I entered the office this Monday morning I expected the usual cheers of “Good morning!”, “How are you?” and “You had a nice weekend?” that greet me when I come in but instead there was complete silence and I looked into faces marked with shock. It was the sort of silence that is in fact incredibly tense and almost loud as if crying out. “Have you heard? John died this morning,” my colleague told me. John was the head driver and an extremely lovely and humble man. Working for an international NGO and being as generous as he was, he took in most of his nieces and nephews and provided for all of them in addition to his own wife and children with his moderate salary. Why did John die? Nobody knows exactly but it seems that he suffered from undiagnosed diabetes, then got malaria and the malaria treatment at the hospital made his sugar levels spike, which ultimately caused his death within only a few days. The first hospital where he stayed did not have any doctors on duty; the second hospital did not have doctors capable of correctly diagnosing his diseases.

After talking to my colleagues, I opened my laptop to check my email. The inbox showed a new message from my mother: She had just come back from visiting her 80-year-old uncle who has been sick with diabetes for as long as I have known him. He has been in and out of the hospital for more than a year now and just wishes to die at this point. He lies in a hospital bed, unable to move, unwilling to eat, and, although not having suffered from dementia before, literally losing his mind. Yet, although his condition is slowly deteriorating, the dialysis, a pacemaker and an array of other machines and pills keep him from dying. His wife, my great aunt, has in the meantime suffered a stroke due to the burden of caring for him. Now both are in the hospital. While my great uncle wants the doctors to stop treating him, yet they won’t, John’s family tried to find someone who could treat him and prevent his death, yet they couldn’t.

Death is an inherent part of life. In countries privileged with good health care, we are quick to forget that despite all our resources and skills, our lives will eventually end with death. We can sometimes be blind to the relief that death can provide for very sick people because we have learned to avoid and fight death as much as we can. And as our health care system is so good at keeping people alive, it will do so to the point where it might do more harm than good. How much effort and how many resources are invested every day into keeping people alive who wish nothing more than being discharged and allowed to die?

At the same time, health care in much of the global South is not even good enough to successfully treat diseases as common as malaria or to diagnose a broken leg. After being hit by a car, one of my colleagues was driven from one hospital in Monrovia to the next, looking for an x-ray machine and someone capable of handling it. She couldn’t find any and now simply hopes that her pain stems only from bruises and not from broken bones. Resources, equipment, knowledge, skills – all of it is lacking. “Only the grace of God keeps you alive in Liberia,” is what my colleagues say over and over.

Clearly, any solution to this paradox of unnecessary suffering in the North because of health care systems that are too good at what they’re doing and the South because of health care systems that are dysfunctional, must be much more complex than simply redistributing resources. The reasons for both are more deeply rooted in the respective political, social and even cultural contexts. And yet, the inequality that I experience here is so outrageous it is hard for me to simply “feel lucky” about where I happened to be born, give John’s family some financial support for his funeral and otherwise conclude that the reasons for global inequalities are too complex to be effectively tackled. Just how?

Empowering Women through Conflict Resolution and Communication Skills

Laughter. “Why do you ask us about corn flakes?” “Corn flakes?” “Yes, you said: “How do you usually respond to corn flakes in your community?” That was when I started exclusively using the Liberian synonyms for conflict “confusion”, “palava” and “hala-hala” in trainings…

After having co-facilitated several trainings, a local partner organization asked me to design and facilitate a training on basic conflict resolution and communication skills for several women’s groups that they support. These women face challenges in their communities where their empowerment is seen with suspicion – by their husbands who feel excluded, by other groups in the community who see them as competitors, and by anyone who sees the white vehicles with USAID logos drive into the communities from time to time to hold forums, provide trainings and provide other support to the women’s groups, leading them to believe that the women are “eating” immense sums of money as people say here. Development projects in general and women empowerment in particular never come without their challenges as I have been able to experience here several times. Especially in a deeply patriarchal culture, women’s organizations can easily appear as a threat to the power relations as they exist and therefore encounter many obstacles.

The mentor organization to these women’s groups thus approached me to hold a short training with representatives from the groups to introduce them to some basic concepts and tools from conflict resolution and discuss basic communication challenges and tools. These can help them better deal with the issues mentioned above but also with everyday problems within their own groups and to a certain degree also with conflicts in their communities, the most pressing of which according to the participants are land disputes, sexual violence, men abandoning their families and other family disputes. We discussed among other things the importance of recognizing and addressing root causes, raising awareness about the various consequences of conflicts, the benefit of staying calm and listening to all parties to the conflict instead of immediately taking sides, and ways to communicate messages clearly.

I had learned from a Liberian trainer the analogy of peacemakers or mediators as cool water. People who have a confusion are hot like fire and what you need to do is be water and cool them down. Don’t add wood to the fire by taking sides or blaming or judging but remain calm and cool the others down before doing anything else. This picture stayed with the participants. In the beginning of the training, a participant had asked what we would recommend for her to do if her sister wronged another person. I asked the group and most participants suggested telling her in front of the entire community that she’s wrong – open shaming basically. After the training I asked what they would take home with them from the training. “I will talk to both persons who have the confusion before judging”, “I will listen to the person who started the confusion and try to understand why she did it”, “I will try to stay calm and explain what I think”, “I want to be like water, fresh and cool, and bring calm to the confusion”. These comments were encouraging.

As is often the case, I felt at the end that I had learned just as much from the participants as they hopefully had from me. Such energy, passion and commitment to bring change to their communities! Three women came with their infants and toddlers and yet did not miss out on any session or discussion, one young woman presenting a “conflict tree” on sexual and gender-based violence in her community started a spontaneous passionate speech calling on the other women to stand up against SGBV, and, before leaving, the women encouraged each other through songs and calls to keep on fighting for their rights. “Women ooooh”, one shouted and the rest answered “women!” Then the mothers tied their kids onto their backs again, the groups left the room clapping and singing and set out to carry what they had learned to their communities.

Interview with Kertész Tibor

This week I had the opportunity to interview Kertész Tibor. He is a well known Hungarian mediator with a genuine passion for conflict resolution and the process of mediation. The interview provided me with a wonderful insight into mediation in Hungary, and the importance of passion and professionalism in the field of conflict resolution. 

How did you become involved in mediation?

I attended ELTE University in Budapest, and while I was there István ( a founding member of Partners Hungary Foundation) introduced me to the concept of mediation. I was very interested and discovered that I really enjoyed mediation. István then introduced me to Partners Hungary Foundation as a volunteer. After attending trainings, in which active and experiential learning took place, I became a training assistant. I also studied, trained, and practiced in Austria and in the U.S.A.

How many mediations have you conducted? I have heard through the grape-vine that you have conducted the most mediation sessions in Hungary?

I think my students and fellow mediators have done many mediations. We are all very close in number. (At this point, as an interviewer, I would like to highlight the modesty Tibor showed throughout the interview). I'm not quite sure. At the last count I had held 1300 mediation sessions.

What are the most common "types" or "forms" of conflict that you mediate?

Currently, I would say business conflict and family conflict. Mostly dealing with conflicts around the divorce process.

In your opinion what is the greatest benefit of engaging in a mediation in order to resolve a conflict? Why may it be better than engaging with the court system?

When you participate in a mediation the outcomes and the process is based upon the participants decisions. They are in control of the conflict resolution process. It isn't depended on a third party-like a judge. Also, the judicial system and law was not created with the specific personal and situational context of the participants in mind. I recently had a divorcing couple come to mediation, while still having their case heard in court, and they left agreeing that they needed to resolve their problems through mediation. They wanted to come to their own personal decisions.

What is the most rewarding part of being a mediator or the mediation process for you?

Receiving a thank you is always rewarding. I think that it is important to know that not everyone leaves a mediation smiling, but when there is an agreement and you can see the participants are relieved. When the participants have been able to come to some form of conclusion without hurting the other and moving away from a win-lose perspective....that is the biggest reward. I think seeing people engage with problem-solving through mediation is very rewarding. 

What is the most difficult aspect of being a mediator?

Staying out of the conflict and maintaining neutrality. You must always remain aware of being neutral. It is easy to find yourself within another person's conflict. For example- I had a mediation in which a divorced parent left the country with the child and the other parent wanted them to return. The child was four. I have a four-year old. It is easy to see you life in other people's conflict. The most important thing is to remember to remain professional. You are there as a professional.

Is there a difference between mediation in the U.S. and mediation in Hungary? 

The types of conflict are the same. There are not necessarily differences in the forms of conflicts or its manifestation. However, there are slight cultural differences. I think in the U.S. people are able to open-up more easily. Building trust is an easier process. Mediation is more widely accepted in the U.S. and there is an understanding of the mediation process. Because, the concept of mediation is more legitimate in the U.S. society participants often know that a mediator is neutral and is not advocating for any side. This is not always the case in Hungary.

What is success in mediation? What does a successful mediation look like?

Many people think it's an agreement, but sometimes an agreement is not the best outcome. Let me give you an example. This occurred in a victim-offender mediation. A couple had separated and were going through the divorce process. They lived in separate places and the divorce process was very hard. The woman ended up throwing a brick through her ex-husband's window-it landed on the dining table while he was eating with his new girlfriend. The police were called and she was charged. During the mediation old stories and conflicts were told for two-hours. In the end the woman said: "I don't want to do this anymore. My life was about you. Revolved around you. I want to quit mediation." She decided to go to court. The woman understood she would be found guilty, but she saw it as ending the conflict. She wanted to "stop playing his game." It was the only way she could get a clean break. So you see an agreement does not always represent a success in mediation. It is different based on the people and their conflict-context.

How do you "see" mediation in Hungary? 

Positive. Legislation has expanded the field, and it is becoming more and more integrated into the judicial system. There is always room for improvement- mostly in terms of training and quality management. In Hungary, you need 60 hours of training to be a mediator. There is no form of examination and you do not have to participate as a co-mediator or as an observer. Additionally, there is not enough interest in the person who wants to be a mediation. Are they a good candidate? Are they prepared? Not having this quality management makes it very easy for people to be suspicious of professional mediators. 

What is your favorite type of conflict to mediate? ( The phrasing of this question was due to clarity)

Dealing with neighborhood conflict. It is difficult. Married people can separate, but if all your memories, belongings, finances, and security are tied to a physical place...then the conflict is very complicated. The most private area of people's lives and often their "escape" is their home. There was a neighborhood conflict, in the past, that occurred on a one-way street. The families lived on opposite ends and one of the families blocked the exist out. They did not let the other family through with ease. There was fear of violence. The other family often had to be escorted past the "block". When we held the mediation everyone in the town showed up. Through a series of questions and discussion the question of: "why are we here?" and "what is the problem?" was asked. No one knew. No-one could answer the question. There was no way to discuss the starting point of the conflict. Through discussion, it became clear that the neighbors had been in conflict for over forty-years. It had started with their grandparents and some connection to one of the men borrowing a bike from a church... and the other knocking him over. The conflict was so intense it had been maintained for generations. One of the participants decided not to come to the mediation. He or she feared violence. After we held the mediation we did a follow-up on the neighborhood ( 6 months after mediation). The general feeling was that the parties didn't end up as friends, but they could live together. This was a success.

I am personally very committed to working with children and understanding their perspectives in conflict situations. What is the major difference between mediations involving adults and those involving children?

Children-youth are involved in mediation in a couple of different ways: indirectly and directly. Indirectly, children may be involved when handling family conflicts such as divorce or conflicts that involve institutions-such as schools. This is a complex issue overall. In Hungary you cannot involve a child under the age of 14 in a mediation. It is not a matter of parental consent, but a ruling based on age. Children that are coping or form a part of a conflict (often times indirectly) do not have much of a voice. They can't speak for themselves. In a family conflict, such as divorce, you have two parents...but there is a third narrative (the child's) that is not always present.

When I do meet and encounter children-youths in mediation sessions they often have similar traits to the elderly. They are similar in many of their vulnerabilities and their emotions. However, a major difference is that the elderly talk and children-youth often don't want to. Children-youth often don't initially really trust me as a mediator. I am not their age or in their social circle etc. It is understandable. This makes it harder to create dialogue. Usually, you have to start on a topic that allows for some discussion and can lead to trust-building. A topic that everyone has an understanding of. The focus of direct child-youth mediation is communication building and creating trust. You need to build trust in the participants and the process before you can resolve conflict. 

This question leads me to think of empathy building, which is different between the elderly and children-youth. You cannot always ask a child a direct question such as : "How would you feel in the same situation?" or " What is trust to you?" Often times children-youth cannot express themselves in a direct- "question-answer" manner. Rather, it is easier for them to tell stories. I have often had success phrasing points in the following manner: " Tell me a story in which you felt you were trusted." 

How would you like to see mediation develop in Hungary over the next ten years? Ideally?

I would like all mediators to have university degrees. Maybe even a Masters in conflict resolution. I would like there to be a practical training requirement and lots of fieldwork form part of the process of becoming a mediator. Mediators "in training" would be required to observe, co-mediate, and have 350 hours of training before being permitted to practice mediation alone. I would also like to see large and strong mediation organizations developed. Ones that could provide quality control. These organizations could provide training and ensure that skill levels are high. Hopefully the number of mediation cases increases. In Vienna, Austria, a large organization as I have described exists and they mediate thousands of cases a year. I think these organizations should be civil organizations and not run by the state. 

What advice would you offer to mediators just entering into the profession? Or students such as myself?

You are going to have to reflect on yourself and conflict in a different way. You will need to understand your place in the conflict resolution process. Bright and innovative ideas to resolve the problems before you will come to your mind, but you will need to be a professional and stay neutral. You must learn to work with your personality without letting it impact the neutrality of mediation. Be neutral, but be present. You will never completely understand the conflict...only the participants fully understand what they are going through.

I would like to thank Tibor for taking the time out of his busy schedule to provide me with an interview. I have wanted to speak with him for a very long time, as his reputation as the best and brightest has often been discussed. I have participated in evaluations and have had the opportunity to meet and interview many wonderful individuals-all whom have urged me to speak with Tibor.  

One Conflict to Resolve Another?

After a couple of weeks of not having much work and generally waiting around to hear from the powers that be, I have a new project to work on. The Turkish Red Crescent has asked me to develop a country profiling system for humanitarian assistance, in order to help them keep a record of all the risk-prone countries in the world, the type of risks they are facing, and the amount of aid they have already received from the Turkish Red Crescent. After developing the template, the first country I am to work on, is Bosnia and Herzegovina. So far, the template is ready, and I have started working on the individual case studies.

In the 1930s, the Turkish government expressed its desire to assimilate Kurds into Turkey. Many resisted this move, and today the Kurds comprise 15 to 18% of the total population of Turkey. Since the 1980s, Kurdish movements included both peaceful political activities for basic civil rights for Kurds in Turkey, as well as armed rebellion and guerrilla warfare, including military attacks aimed at Turkish military bases, demanding a separate Kurdish state. In the 1970s this separatist movement tied up with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is currently listed as a terrorist organization by many countries as well as international organizations.

According to today's Hurriyet Daily News, a Turkish newspaper supplement, support for the 'resolution process' aimed to end Turkey's three decade old conflict between the Turkish State and the Kurdish separatists has increased among both the Kurdish population as well as the rest of the Turkish population, according to a survey conducted by the ruling party's Research and Development Directorate. Since the Gezi park protests, the percentage of Kurds supporting the peace process has risen from 75% to 90%, while the percentage of Turkish people has risen from 65% to 70%. It's funny how as soon as the Turks and Kurds were collectively faced with a problem that lay outside the realm of their own differences, it was easy for them to look upon themselves as a unified entity -- raising their voices in unison against authoritarian measures imposed by an otherwise democratic government.

This is almost reminiscent of Muzafer Sherif's 'Robbers Cave Experiment' where the presence of a superordinate goal led the rival groups to forget their differences and join forces to overcome a greater problem. Fun fact: Sherif himself was Turkish, and obtained his first M.A. degree from the University of Istanbul!


 

Assessing GoT/TRC Programming for Gender Sensitivity: A Glance at Material and Non-Material Camp Infrastructure

From the beginning, the Turkish Government has treated Syrians as if they were “guests” seeking temporary reprieve from a violent situation. Government officials predicted that the crisis would be short-lived and based early interventions for displaced Syrians on the notion that their stay would be an abbreviated one. This assumption also partially explains the government’s early resistance to overtures from the international community as well as the difficulty it faced with establishing a uniform registration system prior to June 2012[1], a mishap, in retrospect, that has contributed to the ongoing
challenge of reporting accurate numbers of Syrians who are not living in camps.

In terms of reports on the conditions within Turkish camps for Syrian refugees, it makes sense to differentiate between material conditions (the quality of physical infrastructure, security, and the provision of food and non-food items, etc.) and non-material conditions (access to and quality of basic services, availability of psychosocial support, etc.), primarily because there exists a disparity between the two in most camps.

Material Infrastructure

The overall impression of the camps from a material perspective is overwhelmingly positive. State Department officials who had visited the Kilis camp reported that it was “5 star” in quality and boasted homes with running water and flat-screen TVs as well as access to laundry facilities. In most camps, children have designated areas to play, and vocational training in sewing and rug making for women are available. Children also have access to Turkish language classes and are increasingly able to continue primary school studies in Arabic, although the government was slow to procure Arabic speaking individuals to help run camp operations.[2] The International Crisis Group has documented similar reports of Syrians enjoying a “5-star experience”, with some outside observers commenting that these camps are the best they had ever seen.[3]

Despite positive feedback from visits to camps by external actors, it seems clear that material conditions and levels of comfort enjoyed by Syrians vary from camp to camp. Generally, container camps are better-equipped and more comfortable than tent camps, which make up the majority of available facilities.

The overall security of camps seems to be quite good, with differences in threats to physical safety largely dependent on each camp’s proximity to the border. Law enforcement is comprised of both gendarmerie and privately contracted officer, female security guards form part of the camp security detail, and the relationship between camp residents and security guards was reported as friendly. In addition to well-developed security around the perimeter of camps, one interviewee noted that within one camp, certain areas had been cordoned off for single male inhabitants to occupy on their own. This was apparently done after some female residents raised the concern that they felt uncomfortable with single males roaming campgrounds freely.[4]

Most interviewees reported that they had observed friendly interactions between camp staff and camp residents, but a more thorough interview process conducted with Syrian women in Osmaniye and Nizip camps suggests that camp staff would greatly benefit from cultural sensitivity training as residents felt resentment and tension between themselves and staff.[5]

Non-Material Infrastructure

The primary program in support of food security within the camps is one of the bright spots of the ongoing effort to care for displaced Syrians. In partnership with WFP, TRC kicked off a program that enables Syrian families to purchase pre-approved food items from participating vendors both within camps and in nearby towns and cities. Each person within a family unit receives two installments of 40TL (approximately 40USD) on an electronic card each month.[6] Using these cards, families can choose from a variety of foodstuffs (with the exception of alcohol and junk food) and can prepare meals using kitchen equipment provided by camp management.

            
This program is currently active in 14 camps and TRC/WFP have plans to roll out the e-voucher program to the remaining camps in the coming months. The program itself not only enables Syrians to resume the kind of activities that underpin some semblance of normalcy (like shop for groceries, interact with shopkeepers, cook a variety of meals), but it has resulted in huge cost-savings for the Turkish government. When WFP first arrived in country, the Turkish government was spending between 140 and 170USD per person per day on hot meals that were prepared by camp management staff.[7] The e-voucher program has essentially halved food and nutrition costs and, at the same time, attempts to renew in survivors a sense of self-reliance and ownership over day-to-day activities.

            
Access to education has been something of a mixed bag for both adult and child learners living with the camps. Early on, low numbers of Arabic speakers made it difficult to enable young children to continue their studies in Arabic, although it also seems that TRC has made Turkish language lessons available where possible. One interviewee reported that classrooms that she observed were not sex-segregated and that the children seemed relaxed and well-adjusted to their surroundings, although she did come across one girl who did not attend classes because her family would not allow it.[8] Another observer remarked that a fairly equal number of boys and girls appeared to be in attendance in the classrooms.

An early draft of a needs assessment report completed by a SGBV consultant and her colleagues during visits to Nizip and Osmaniye camps, however, indicates that many women are unable to take advantage of adult-learning courses because their husbands will not allow them to participate. Overall, her team fielded requests for greater access to educational outlets and Turkish language courses at all levels.^[9]

The ability to generate income as a Syrian refugee living in Turkey remains a major challenge. Within the camps, management offers training in traditional vocations for residents. For example, women are able to learn carpet weaving and beautician trades[10] but there is no opportunity to expand skill sets outside of traditional niches.

As part of their status as Temporarily Protected Persons, Syrian camp residents are unable to procure temporary work permits for any part of their stay in Turkey. In speaking with a SGBV consultant familiar with camp operations, it was noted that the current high demand for Arabic-speaking teachers could be addressed by making provisions for camp residents who were teachers in Syria to work-for-pay, but because the government refuses to issue temporary work permits to Syrians, any work that a Syrian teacher would perform within the camps would go unpaid. [11]

This phenomenon of working for free or working for far less than their Turkish counterparts has been reported widely throughout the country, with one commentator arguing that Syrians have become the new working class in Turkey.[12] Instances of survival sex and prostitution were reported[13], but because a UN-sponsored needs assessment of this phenomenon is still underway, accurate figures for the degree to which this impacts women’s lives in the camps is unknown (the cropping up of women selling sex for survival and protection will be explored at greater length in the subsequent section). The same report noted that the significant burden of finding paid work in the informal sector falls heavily on women, who are often heads-of-household as a result of either the death or involvement of their husbands in the anti-Assad insurgency.[14]

There is some level of political organization within the camps, for both women and men, although only 40% of the camps have official camp committees in place and two camps have no female representatives at all.[15] Almost all camps, however, feature a mukhtar (“chosen”, or headman) system, which has formed out of democratic elections of representatives within camp communities. In some camps, there are both male and female mukhtar committees, although it is not clear what level of decision-making power each committee has and whether or not constituents feel that the mukhtar committees function as strong liaisons between constituents themselves and camp administration.

One State Department official recalled a time when the embassy actively pressured TRC camp management to require the formation of a female mukhtar committee in a camp with only male representation. She recalled that TRC’s response reflected a “live and let live” ethos, one in which the Turkish government would only intervene in camp affairs when absolutely necessary.[16]

Interestingly, instances where interpersonal and intercultural conflict has erupted within the camps are around the issue of child and polygamous marriage. Having ratified both the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in addition to drafting the Child Protection Law, Turkish law identifies children as individuals less than 18 years of age. A recently revised Civil Code stipulates that the statutory age limit for marriage is 17 for both women and men, whereas prior to 2002, the limit was 15 and 17 for women and men, respectively. In practice, however, UNFPA reports that child marriage is practiced throughout Turkey, with a heavier concentration of cases in Central East Anatolia, an area that shares ethnic and cultural ties to the many Syrians now living in Turkey.[17]

It was reported by several sources that GoT/TRC is not consistent with its response to child marriage in Syrian camps, opting in some cases to turn a blind eye and in others to unequivocally forbid the practice, a development one official finds ironic given how rampant it is in nearby Turkish towns.[18] This challenge is not one faced by the Turkish government alone; in fact, it is also a reality many officials are forced to confront in camps throughout Jordan.

On the subject of forced [child] marriage, unofficial religious marriages in Zaatari Camp are a serious concern, but on the other side, they are seen by some (women, girls and/or their families) as a protection mechanism.  This is proving an incredibly difficult issue to tackle, particularly without sounding alarm bells that may cause more harm. [19] 

Even in Turkish camps, which are comparatively better equipped and secured than Lebanese or Jordanian counter-examples, early and forced marriages have sprung up in alarming numbers as a way to ensure that young girls are both protected and leveraged to secure a bride price for families with little to no income.[20]

            
Because healthcare practices in the camps and the scarcity of psychosocial support for survivors of sexual and violent trauma are two components that have contributed to some of the largest gender gaps in GoT/TRC programming, these two areas will be explored in great detail in the subsequent section.

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[1] US State Department Official #2. Interview. June 7, 2013.

[2] US State Department Official #1. Interview. June 7, 2013.

[3] Hugh Pope. Country Director of International Crisis Group. Interview. July 19, 2013.

[4] State Department Official #2. Interview. June 7, 2013.

[5] SGBV Consultant. Interview. June 9, 2013.

[6] “WFP-Kizilay Food E-Voucher Programme.” Progress Report 7 (Gaziantep). May 31, 2013

[7] WFP Official. Interview. July 18, 2013.

[8] State Department Official #1. Interview. June 7, 2013.

[9] SGBV Consultant. “Report on Humanitarian Gender Based Violence (GBV) needs Assessment.” May 22 – 28, 2013.

[10] SGBV Consultant. Interview. June 15, 2013.

[11] SGBV Consultant. Interview. June 9, 2013.

[12] Hugh Pope, Country Director of International Crisis Group/Turkey. Interview. July 19, 2013.

[13] SGBV Consultant. “Report on Humanitarian Gender Based Violence (GBV) needs Assessment.” May 22 – 28, 2013.

[14] SGBV Consultant. Interview. June 9, 2013.

[15] UNHCR RRP 5, p.  223.

[16] State Department Official #2. Interview. June 7, 2013.

[17] UNFPA. “Turkey: Child Marriage” (Version 1). October 2012.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Abbie Taylor. Personal Correspondence. June 24^th, 2013.

[20] SGBV Consultant. Interview. June 15, 2013.