Strengthening security coordination in crisis

On 8^th October 2024, in response to the escalation of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, INSO launched our Emergency Response in Lebanon to support enhanced security coordination and provide critical collective services to NGOs operating in Lebanon. The quick mobilization of INSO staff from country offices in Syria and Yemen, in addition to Lebanese personnel and outsourced capacities, enabled us to begin providing in-country services to the NGO community within a matter of days.

INSO’s Emergency Response:

The long-running conflict between Israel and Hezbollah significantly escalated in September 2024 as Israel scaled up air strikes across Lebanon before launching a ground invasion on 30 September. This resulted in a rapid deteriorating in the security situation for NGOs operating across the country, forcing several to relocate staff either internally or to regional hubs such as Amman. Recognising the critical need to support NGOs in country, INSO deployed our first Emergency Response team to Lebanon, with staff arriving and services established in Beirut as of the 12^th October. Within the first two weeks, nearly 80 humanitarian organisations had registered for INSO services, and our platform now provides services to 117 humanitarian partners.

Designed to address the needs of frontline responders, the Lebanon Emergency Response Platform builds on INSO’s institutional strengths of analysis, training, coordination and crisis management. Within the first week, we activated our Conflict and Humanitarian Data Centre (CHDC), with the support of both NGO reporting and UNDSS. This enabled our partners to access critical real-time information as well as supporting our analysis as the situation developed. Such information has been critical to enable humanitarian actors to respond to escalating needs. As we move beyond the initial 3-month deployment, our database will continue to grow, strengthening our analysis, as additional partners – particularly more local and national NGOs – register and engage.

“INSO provides valuable information and analysis that enhances contextual understanding and supports informed decision-making for humanitarian actors.” – Kasper Engborg, OCHA

Training has also been a key pillar of our emergency response in Lebanon. Contrary to expectations, humanitarian organisations demonstrated their willingness to prioritise training even amidst the crisis, highlighting the strong demand for in-person learning and peer exchanges, as well as the recognised value of INSO’s training approach.

“INSO’s value was to be quickly able to provide INGOs with ready-made tools and trainings to support in improving our collective operational capacity on the ground and better manage risk in a way that balanced reaching the most in need while ensuring the safety of our staff” – Kevin Charbel, Head of Mission, Premiere Urgence Internationale.

Between 18-27 November, our team conducted several training sessions on security and crisis management for 48 participants from 37 organisations (87% of whom were national staff, and 10% representing Lebanese national organisations). These sessions provided essential opportunities for in-person exchanges between organisations, underlining the importance of creating spaces for collaboration and shared learning, especially in crises where resources can be under strain and individual organisations can feel isolated. Building on this, we aim to move towards in-person roundtables – enabling country directors and other senior managers to share experiences and practices and better coordinate around security issues.

Lessons learnt for adaptive security coordination:

The success of this emergency response marks a new phase in our operational approach and builds on our responses in Sudan and Gaza. In both instances, in collaboration with the respective INGO Fora, we provided a minimum package of services, facilitating information sharing, incident reporting and providing NGOs with analysis and advice. Whilst both experiences demonstrated that even through remote modalities, INSO could support more informed decision-making, they also highlighted certain limitations of this approach. In Sudan, without in-country safety advisors or field monitors, INSO was reliant on NGO incident reporting to feed our analysis. However as NGO staff were withdrawn or evacuated from areas of conflict, incident reporting also decreased leaving blind-spots. In both Sudan and Gaza, we have subsequently moved to establish a presence in-country, with the Palestine Country Director deploying to Gaza late last year.

Our experience in Lebanon has also provided valuable insights into how this model can be further improved. Initial challenges integrating INSO into the local humanitarian coordination architecture emphasised the importance of early engagement with existing coordination forums (which was critical in INSO’s response in both Sudan and Gaza) and proactive communication with NGO partners in advance of our deployment. Our subsequent registration with LHIF has been essential to position INSO within the broader humanitarian community and has enabled access vital resources and information. Moving forward more integrated support to NGO Fora will be an essential component of INSO’s adaptive programming.

Lessons Learnt from INSO’s emergency response:

1. Proactive communications with partners and coordination with existing Forum can smooth INSO’s integration within humanitarian architecture, manage expectations and allow for tailored response.
2. Even during acute crisis training can be beneficial – particularly as opportunity for in-person interaction.
3. While National NGOs have equal access to INSO services, further outreach and investment is often necessary to support them to make use of these services in their internal operations.
4. INSO’s role in coordination in crisis events is essential as the capacity of individual organisations often overwhelmed regardless of size.
5. Demonstrated capacity for INSO to quickly establish services and provide more agile programming, however potential sustainability and/or exit strategies must be considered from the outset.

Secondly, whilst INSOs services remain free and accessible to all registered humanitarian NGOs regardless of whether they are international or national, thus far very few Lebanese NGOs have registered through our Partners Portal. Our emergency response team has initiated relationships with several NNGOs and continues to actively engage the Lebanon Humanitarian and Development Forum (LHDF) to address this gap. We remain committed to prioritising further outreach and addressing barriers that may prevent national and local NGOs participating in INSO’s security coordination. Any NGO, whether international or national, who wishes to register for INSO services in Lebanon, can do so here: info@lbn.ngosafety.org

Moving towards permanent INSO services in Lebanon:

Whilst the ceasefire has reduced the intensity of conflict incidents and allowed some civilians to return home, the situation in Lebanon remains fragile. As a result many NGOs continue to see INSO services as a necessity.

“As the context remains fragile, INSO can provide great value-added for all NGOs, and more so for the ones working in areas with stronger safety concerns” – Daniele Regazzi, Country Director, Solidarites International.

Whilst political changes in both Lebanon and neighbouring Syria contribute to this uncertainty they also present opportunities to increase humanitarian access and improve humanitarian response. In December, our teams in Beirut and Amman provided critical incident support to many NGOs in Damascus as the conflict shifted and quickly mobilised to conduct cross-border assessments between Syria and Lebanon to enable informed risk management and increase access. Moving forward, INSO has determined to extend our emergency response for an additional 3 months with the intention of establishing a permanent country office in Lebanon. We hope that a sustained presence in Lebanon will also help reinforce better safety and security practices among humanitarian actors as well as contribute to enhanced coordination critical to humanitarian safety.

As outlined by our Regional Director for Middle East and Central Asia, Scott Bohlinger “Our focus now is ensuring the sustainability of our operations. We want to stay and deliver in Lebanon, to improve the resilience of the humanitarian community here and ultimately ensure that our partners are able to also stay and deliver aid to those affected by this latest conflict.”