Social cohesion between Syrian Refugees and Urban Host Communities in Lebanon and Jordan

World Vision’s Middle East and Eastern Europe Region (MEER) is committed to improving programming impact and building evidence across the region. MEER’s Urban Learning Hub partnered with World Vision’s internal change initiative, Disaster Management 2020 and the Urban Centre of Expertise to investigate and document the current literature and practice associated with social cohesion programming, particularly within the Syrian refugee context.

This literature review clearly demonstrates that social cohesion is a critical yet under-researched and under-developed area of humanitarian and development programming. With the increasing number of conflicts and the large-scale movement of refugees arising from the Syrian civil war and overall political insecurity in the Middle East, this review highlights the importance of social cohesion and also the sparsity of proven approaches, methodologies and tools to adequately address and promote social cohesion. Social cohesion is an area worthy of further investment and engagement by World Vision.