Humanitarian assistance and social protection in contexts of forced displacement: effects on social cohesion

The increasing and sustained presence of displaced people in host communities worldwide has led to a rising focus on social cohesion in displacement settings, and how to improve it. Many factors influence social cohesion, and assistance from governments or international agencies is unlikely to be the central determinant. However, assistance provision may nevertheless play a role in influencing attitudes and interactions between displaced and host communities (horizontal cohesion) and between those communities and the state (vertical cohesion). Our research explores this relationship in various displacement settings, drawing on primary research in three country case studies (Cameroon, Colombia, Greece). What are the potential effects of assistance on social cohesion? And how do these effects differ if assistance is delivered by independent humanitarian agencies versus linked in some way with the state social protection system?

This paper is also accompanied by a toolkit to help policymakers and practitioners to apply the research findings in their displacement setting, this toolkit is available here.

These outputs are part of a larger two-year research project studying approaches to assisting affected populations in contexts of forced displacement. For more information and other project outputs, see here.

Key Messages

Where tensions exist around assistance to displaced people, they are rarely caused by the assistance itself; they are instead typically a symptom of existing social discontent within the host community. This often relates to perceived institutional neglect of hosts’ socioeconomic concerns and needs, and is best addressed by tackling these, rather than by reducing critical support for vulnerable displaced households.
Perceptions of assistance influence cohesion dynamics more than the actual support provided. Social tensions are most likely to arise when assistance is perceived to be diverting resources or attention away from vulnerable citizens.
International financing is therefore critical to ensure that assistance to displaced people can be delivered while maintaining existing services and filling prior gaps in provision for vulnerable citizens.
Even if assistance is internationally financed, it may be publicly perceived to be state-funded, particularly if it is linked in some way with government systems. Such an assumption may strengthen recipients’ relations with the state but may also aggravate tensions among non-recipients. Programme framing is therefore key, and should be carefully tailored to the context.

The research report above is accompanied by a background literature review, which was undertaken to identify key insights from past research on the effects of assistance provision on social cohesion (with a focus on insights that hold particular relevance for our larger primary research study). This background paper is available below.