Expert Panel 1: Another Face to the Crisis: Child Protection and Maintaining Proper Education
A large portion of refugees’ youth lack quality education and training opportunities as with such great numbers, host countries are not able to accommodate everyone in formal and proper school systems. In addition to educational opportunities, refugee children certainly lack other basic social needs. Women, on the other hand, remain the sole providers for one in four Syrian refugee families, struggling to provide food and shelter for their children and often face harassment, humiliation, and isolation.

This expert panel will shed light on the adversities of these groups and participants will come up with recommendations and solutions to improve their conditions.

Expert Panel 2: Public-Private Partnerships to Multiply Capabilities
Addressing the refugee crisis should not only be on the top of the concerned governments’ agenda but also the private sector’s because businesses cannot thrive in societies impaired by social exclusion and the resulting instability. A refugee crisis of this magnitude requires solutions in which public policies are met by responsible business ventures, new business models, investments, innovation and creative technology. The opportunities looming with the peace process and the prospects of reconstruction are additional incentives in this regard.
This expert panel will highlight the significance of public-private partnerships (PPP) in dealing with the crisis and the reconstruction prospects, and showcasing examples of private companies that are leveraging innovation and changing their business models to serve new societal needs.

Expert Panel 3: War, Political Process and Impact on Population Movements: Where are the Syrians today?
This panel will discuss the development of the conflict in Syria, on the ground and on the political arena, the phases that this conflict went through, as well as its gradual transformation from a peaceful movement into a violent and military fighting, with local, regional and international intertwined dimensions.

The session will also explore the impact of these developments on civilians and on the population movements, forced or self-imposed, inside Syria or to neighboring countries or the rest of the World. It will discuss the patterns of these movements and the different statuses of the Syrian displaced and their distribution between permanent and temporary refugees.  

Expert Panel 4: Integration of Youth programs in the response plans
This workshop aims at continuing the discussion about the integration of youth components in response plans. Building trust and understanding between the youth serve positively on the relationship between the refugees and the host communities. The workshop will also explore the possibility of combining efforts with youth organizations which have existing youth programs and expanding these programs to target a wider beneficiary group. It will also highlight the importance of youth work in the communities with the focus on countering violent extremism and encouraging youth engagement in shaping public policies within the humanitarian assistance and the development work. Moreover, the workshop will be a platform to share experiences on different innovative solutions that were led by youth or possibilities for new ideas.

Roundtables

Roundtable 1: Primary Healthcare and Reproductive Health
This specialized roundtable will tackle the healthcare sector and the medical services that the donor community is providing, with a focus on the reproductive health component. This component will address the idea of maintaining the family’s cohesion, and handling the children’s well-being and psychological balance that are directly affected by the interactions between the parents within the household. Moreover, the meeting will discuss the steps that should be taken to provide this support for the children and heads of households.

Roundtable 2: Ensuring Transparency in Humanitarian Assistance
The INGOs and the local NGOs faced many challenges in ensuring well-organized and transparent methodologies of providing the humanitarian assistance for the refugees. This was crucial to meet the needs of the beneficiaries in a just and fair way that follows SPHERE standards. This roundtable will tackle the different methodologies that the organizations and the government entities use to ensure transparency and fair provision of services. Moreover, the meeting will also focus on the way beneficiaries can be part of the decision making process and shaping the needs that should be met by donors and the international community.

Roundtable 3: Information-Sharing between Governments and International/National Agencies
This session will explore information-sharing as a critical component to improved inter-agency coordination during humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Governments and agencies’ ability to collect, analyze, disseminate and act on key information is fundamental to effective response. Important and beneficial information leading to improved response directly benefits affected populations and refugees of the Syrian crisis. Achieving interagency collaboration and setting parameters for information sharing has proven to be a challenge for both governments and organizations, but success in these areas can help ensure that refugees receive the support they need. Moreover, this roundtable will tackle the security and safety concerns of the refugees and the level of information sharing in the current situation.

Roundtable 4: Challenges for Establishing Self-Sustained Camps: Water, Energy and Sanitation
In the frame of the emergency and aid programs in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, a special attention must be given to the water, sanitation, and hygiene. This workshop aims at discussing the lessons learned from this sector and setting action points that might support the improvement of this sector by the INGOs, NGOs, the public sector, and the private sector. The energy component will be tackled through discussions on renewable energy and the opportunities present in this sector.

Roundtable 5: The Impact of New Technologies in Optimizing Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees
This roundtable will explore how vital tasks such as registering and delivering aid, food, healthcare, education and vocational training, often relies on an array of information and communications technology (ICT). Digital forms of aid and capacity building, such as biometric verification, tele-medicine, and smart device data collection, as well as remote teaching amongst many others, have long taken over the role of the typical aid/development worker.

The enormous impact of technology on humanitarian assistance and delivery will be discussed in depth and participants will be able to observe and experience a variety of these technological innovations firsthand.