In a complex crisis like Syria, third-party monitoring plays a vital role in offering insights, alternative perspectives, and additional layers of accountability for delivering humanitarian and development assistance to affected communities – particularly for donors with limited access to these communities.
Since the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, the situation in Syria has changed dramatically. As aid actors operating in Syria, we are in the middle of a crucial moment where we need to reevaluate our roles and reflect on how we can best support Syrian community in their journey ahead. For those engaged with third-party monitoring – and the projects it supports – we need to ask how third-party monitoring can evolve to be more localized and thereby help humanitarian and development actors to navigate this new path forward?
Focusing on Learning
Working with field monitors who are deeply connected to – and themselves from the communities being supported – is an important baseline for localized third-party monitoring, but other steps are needed to shift third-party monitoring from a donor-mandated exercise of upward accountability to an opportunity for adjustment, improvement, and learning. A well-designed, locally led third-party monitoring platform can be more than a tick-box exercise; it can provide crucial insights about (a) communities’ satisfaction with the support they receive, (b) their priorities for future interventions, and (c) what could be done better.
In many cases, third-party monitoring is approached as a relatively straightforward exercise that includes reviewing project documentation, visiting project sites, and conducting interviews or discussions with affected communities. While Syrian organizations typically have the chance to discuss the findings, monitoring visits can still feel like daunting exercises – with an external entity critically reviewing the projects and organizational efforts. With conflicting priorities and over-burdened implementation teams, the focus tends to be on responding to key findings and achieving reasonable outcomes, leaving little time for reflection.
To truly benefit from the vast amount of data collected through third-party monitoring, the tasks of TPM agents need to be expanded to not only include reports, but also learning workshops, feedback sessions, and co-analysis with the monitored organizations during which they share knowledge and insights. To achieve this approach, third-party monitors must function as facilitators of learning, not merely as observers or watchdogs.
Taking Stock of Progress
We can already see some progress in this regard in Syria, where some monitoring agents are including learning components in their work. These organizations are trying to involve the monitored organizations in the montioring process from beginning to end, thereby endeavoring to not only share the outcome with the monitored organization, but also to exhaust the process as a learning exercise.
Third-party monitoring agents can support local organizations to (a) better understand the process, the employed tools, and the analysis, as well as (b) translate the findings into actionable steps. To enable active participation and build a base for learning, the involved processes, reports, and discussions must be conducted in Arabic. This ensures that local organizations can involve not only their office-based staff, but also those working directly within the communities.
Report templates should also be practical and actionable, ideally designed in a format that can be easily shared with communities without requiring significant time or resources to adapt. Most importantly, we must acknowledge that findings and solutions are only valuable if they are discussed collaboratively, bringing together the third-party monitoring agent, local organizations, the project’s donor, and the communities themselves.
While crucial data is already delivered to project implementors, it should also be shared with communities. We should actively seek ways of encouraging community participation in the interpretation of findings. This process may take more of time, but it will ultimately enable project be more effective if they can draw upon local solutions through an ongoing conversation. Local organizations can lead those engagements, while simultaneously sharing knowledge with field monitors on how to best engage communities.
Incorporating New Methods
As Syrian communities enter a new phase, there is an opportunity to go beyond common methods like key informant interviews and focus group discussions – by introducing different approaches that facilitate community-driven learning. For instance, interactive community workshops can be organized to present findings of the monitoring and thus encourage discussions and feedback to shape recommendations and follow-up actions. Those workshops could build upon infographics, posters, or storytelling to present data in a way that resonates with community members. Ideally, local organizations or community leaders could take the lead in facilitating these workshops—presenting findings, moderating discussions, and co-creating solutions with participating community members. To stay accountable, a follow-up system needs to be in place to track if and how the community insights were reflected into the actual project implementation or new projects.
In essence, third-party monitoring agents need to find a way to carefully balance between the required neutrality on the one hand and meaningful local engagement on the other. The approach we need right now is one that goes beyond traditional monitoring frameworks and strengthens local organizations and systems. It is one that undoubtedly prioritizes localization principles.
Looking Forward
Syria is now transitioning beyond a humanitarian response to focus on early recovery, development, peace, and community resilience – and entering a new phase of accountability. The end of Assad’s regime opens the opportunity for local organizations to speak freely – and full of hope – about their future, rebuilding of communities and rehabilitation of trust. While the devastating humanitarian emergencies of the past years have demonstrated that local organizations are ready and to respond to the crises they face, now it is the time for Syrian organizations to truly lead the country’s rebuilding.
The coming weeks and months will be a time of adjustment as the humanitarian system is reshaped and mechanisms are established to address social cohesion, peacebuilding, and development—through a whole-of-Syria approach that places local voices and ownership at its core. While Northwest Syria has often been highlighted as a best-practice example for localization, true local leadership and decision-making has been lacking. We are now entering a phase where localization is non-negotiable and must be fully embraced by all donors, international organizations, and supporters.
Katharina is a consultant specializing in localization and locally led humanitarian responses, with a focus on the Middle East. She has worked extensively with local actors and holds a master’s degree in international Humanitarian Action.
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