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A 1.5 million Euro  funded project, exploring why, how and with what effect Southern states, civil society networks and refugees have responded to support Syrian refugees, has launched its website.

The project,ÌýSouth-South Humanitarian Responses to Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey,Ìýwill use the ERC Starting Grant to conduct a 5-year project based on multi-sited ethnographic and participatory research with refugees and a range of aid providers in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

The project website provides a wide range of information about the ,Ìý,Ìý, alongside profiles of the Principal Investigator,ÌýDr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, and Research Associate,ÌýDr Estella Carpi.

The website provides accessible information relating to key Southern-led responses to displacement from Syria.

These include:

•  - States from the global South working together to complement their various abilities and resources, based on principles including ‘solidarity,’ ‘reciprocity’ and ‘mutual respect.’
•  – The responses of local faith communities to those affected by conflict and displacement, providing food, shelter and other material needs, as well as spiritual and pastoral support.
•  -  Successive cycles of displacement mean that refugees are increasingly experiencing ‘’, physically sharing spaces with other people displaced for long periods. Often, first responders to displacement are themselves,Ìýrefugees.
•  –Prioritising the sovereignty and independence of Arab peoples and nations, rejecting the interference of colonial and neo-colonial powers in Arab regional affairs. In the context of Southern responses to displacement from Syria, this presents an alternative to the dominant approaches that situate Northern humanitarian providers as the saviours of Southern victims of displacement.
• ´¡Ìý provides further reading materials on these and other topics relating to humanitarianism and Southern responses to displacement.

The website’s  present a range of viewpoints on forced displacement and different forms of humanitarianism written by the Principal Investigator, Associate Researcher and guest contributors.

The main aims of the research project include:

1. identifying diverse models of Southern-led responses to conflict-induced displacement;
2. examining the (un)official motivations, nature and implications of Southern-led responses;
3. examining refugees’ experiences and perceptions of Southern-led responses;
4. exploring diverse Southern and Northern actors’ perceptions of Southern-led responses;
5. tracing the implications of Southern-led initiatives for humanitarian theory and practice.

The website will be updated regularly with research findings, blog posts, and other news relating to the main aims of the project.

Definitely worth a visit!  

Follow the project on for all the latest announcements.