As part of UNICEF Innocenti's workshop on social protection in humanitarian settings, Sharlene Ramkissoon of UNICEF Lebanon presented her views on "Bridging Evidence & Programming in Humanitarian Social Protection: the Lebanon Experience". For more on this workshop and to access the seven papers released at the event, visit: https://www.unicef-irc.org/article/1829-evidence-on-social-protection-in-contexts-of-fragility-and-forced-displacement.html

1. Bridging Evidence &
Programming in
HumanitarianSocial
Protection: the Lebanon
Experience
Sharlene Ramkissoon
UNICEF Lebanon
Florence, June 8th 2018

2. UNICEF
Lebanon:
Child-focused
Humanitarian
Safety Net
UNICEF Lebanon Child-focused Humanitarian Cash Transfer Program: No Lost
Generation/’Min Ila’ Program
• Piloted in 2016/17, expanded in 2017/18
• Child-focused safety net approach (development settings) adapted to the
refugee crisis
• EligibilityCriteria: Enrolled in 2nd Shift School (Public, Formal)
• Unconditional CashTransfer:
• Base Amount for all Children
• Top up for Older Children)
• Referrals to Complimentary Services for those at risk of dropping out

3. Implementing
the Impact
Evaluation:
Challenges
Impact Evaluation (presented by Jacob de Hoop)
• Why did we do an impact evaluation?
• Impact evaluations of cash-based safety nets are common (even expected)
on the development side, but few examples on humanitarian side
• However, lack of evidence of enrolment increase has overshadowed other
positive findings
• Output-focused interpretation of findings from donors
• Some challenges faced in Lebanon:
• Less predictable implementation environment
• Frequent changes to policies pertaining to refugees
• Example: Policy to Expand Supply of 2nd shift schools

4. Challenge:
Measuring
Coping
Strategies
Measuring Effects of Programs on Child Labour & Early Marriage
• Widely reported through qualitative sources as a prevalent coping strategy
for refugees
• Under-reported in quantitative surveys
• possibly due to shame, fear of losing benefits
• difficult to establish an accurate baseline and accurately measure
improvement (quantitatively)
Positive side:
• appears to be largely a matter of income-constraints (possible impact in
shorter-term) than ‘beliefs’ or an inter-generational pattern (more difficult
to see shorter-term impacts)
• there is interest from donors in seeing quantitative evidence around this:
• how to measure it more accurately?

5. KeyChallenge:
Lack of
Examples of
SocialSafety
Nets for
Protracted
Crisis
‘Protracted Crisis’ versus ‘Humanitarian Crisis’
Challenge: Where do humanitarian safety nets fit in to humanitarian thinking
or national systems development thinking?
 Few examples of use of cash-based safety nets in protracted displacement
as a distinct phase between ‘emergency cash’ and traditional
(development) ‘safety nets’
Evidence Gaps:
 How do coping strategies change as refugees “settle into” protracted
displacement
 How do their needs & priorities subsequently change?
 What are the impacts on children’s human capital development?
 How should cash-based programs / safety nets adapt in turn?

6. Applying
Development
Concepts &
Terms to
Humanitarian
Contexts
Improving the Humanitarian Social Protection Lexicon through Case Studies,
Comparative Analysis & Definition of Models
 Improved distinction between and definition of humanitarian cash versus social
protection approaches
 Monetization of in-kind (100% of 1 good/service) versus safety nets (contribution of
certain % towards overall household budget)
 Transition from humanitarian cash to humanitarian safety nets (protracted crisis)
 Useful to develop case studies and comparative analysis to better understand the
different models of humanitarian social protection
 Why something worked in one country, and why it might not work in another.
 Scale-up of national systems is often discussed by donors, but few countries are
extending national programs to refugees
 Refugees vs IDPs
 This may help to reduce misapplication of ‘development’ terminology to
humanitarian settings:
 Applicability of tools like PMT (snapshot of assets) for refugee populations (who are
steadily depleting their assets as a coping strategy)
 Examples/case studies of successful targeting alternatives of affordable programs
 How to adapt concepts like (or offer alternatives to):
 ‘sustainability’ of refugee programs and ‘graduation’ of refugees who are not legally
permitted to work / start businesses

7. Thank you
Merci
Shukran