Training - Safeguarding the HLP rights of Syrian refugees using STDM

Training workshop - Safeguarding the HLP rights of Syrian Refugees using STDM

On 8 and 9 December 2022, UN-Habitat and the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) conducted a training workshop on the approach used in the project Safeguarding evidence of housing, land and property rights of Syrian refugees in Iraq and Lebanon. The training was held in Beirut and attended by over 30 participants from nine selected Syrian civil society organizations, IOM, NRC and GIZ. The training combined conceptual and technical presentations on the tools used for data collection and management, and practical hands-on exercises.

During the workshop, UN-Habitat and GLTN project personnel provided an overview of the project background, scope and approach and presented the main housing, land and property rights issues in Syria and of Syrian refugees. The results achieved through the project and a preliminary analysis of the data collected through the project were also presented together with the challenges encountered and lessons learnt during the project implementation.

The STDM experts introduced participants to the use of the Social Tenure Domani Model (STDM) - a pro-poor, participatory and affordable land tool for recording people to land relationships along the continuum of land rights - for mapping and georeferencing the HLP rights of people in displacement. Participants learnt how to develop and adapt a STDM questionnaire and how to deploy it for mapping HLP rights of displaced people in their area of origin though a community-based approach. They gained a general understanding of the STDM key architecture and learnt to collect and process data through the KoBoCollect mobile application.

By disseminating the approach and the lessons learnt to potential users of STDM, this training contributed to laying the groundwork and improving the capacities of HLP stakeholders for future broader efforts aiming at documenting and registering the HLP claims of displaced Syrians for sustaining their rights for voluntary return, restitution and / or compensation.

Visit the project page to learn more about the project’s scope and approach.