{"id":35630,"date":"2022-08-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ready-for-feedback3.com\/shape-history\/fmr\/kuntzelman-noor\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T07:00:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T12:00:58","slug":"kuntzelman-noor","status":"publish","type":"fmr_content","link":"https:\/\/www.fmreview.org\/fr\/issue70\/kuntzelman-noor\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond consultation: creating meaningful partnerships through participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers, humanitarian and NGO workers, UN agencies and refugee-hosting governments alike increasingly acknowledge the practical and ethical imperatives to meaningfully consult displaced populations.[1]<\/span><\/a> Many of these stakeholders have made significant efforts to expand refugees\u2019 participatory access through adopting and implementing the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The GCR provides a blueprint for coordinated refugee response strategies to ease pressure on hosting states and promote greater refugee self-reliance. As decisions made in policy and programming directly impact displaced persons\u2019 lives, the importance of their inclusion cannot be overstated. Yet how does participation \u2018beyond consultation\u2019 look in practice? <\/span><\/p>\n

We need to clarify what full and meaningful participation entails, and to establish clear pathways to participation so that all stakeholders can systematically work towards its achievement. The Global Refugee-led Network (GRN) identifies meaningful participation as occurring:<\/span><\/p>\n

When refugees \u2013 regardless of location, legal recognition, gender, identity and demographics \u2013 are prepared for and participating in fora and processes where strategies are being developed and\/or decisions are being made (including at local, national, regional, and global levels, and especially when they facilitate interactions with host states, donors, or other influential bodies), in a manner that is ethical, sustained, safe, and supported financially.<\/span><\/em>[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

We adopt this powerful definition, which we deem appropriate for all displaced groups, not only because of its clarity and usefulness to identify when participation does or does not occur but also because displaced persons themselves established the definition.<\/span><\/p>\n

To propose a new framework for meaningful participation beyond consultation, we build from our personal experiences. Specifically, we leverage Christa\u2019s experiences as a researcher who frequently consults and partners with displaced persons in academic research, alongside Anila\u2019s experiences as a researcher and as a female leader of New Women Connectors (a refugee-led organisation – RLO) who is frequently consulted but rarely considered as an equal partner or as an \u2018expert\u2019 in the projects to which she contributes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consultations with displaced individuals and communities often occur too infrequently and too late, if they occur at all. For instance, researchers may recruit refugees as survey participants or as research assistants but rarely consult them to develop the motivating research question or to establish the research agenda. Similarly, NGO actors may observe displaced communities to determine which humanitarian interventions to implement but fail to allow aid recipients to evaluate existing interventions or to propose new ones. When the displaced are not consulted at all stages (from design to implementation to evaluation) many feel their efforts are undervalued. Their voices and expertise become minimised. This insufficient consultation reflects a glaring power gap between global refugee governance actors and the people they seek to assist. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing about us without us <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We propose a transformative framework which honours the call made by the GRN and other displaced leaders for \u201cnothing about us without us\u201d.[3]<\/span><\/a> Our model captures how most actors, despite their best intentions, create research, humanitarian or policy interventions which are based on the concept of \u2018doing to\u2019 \u2013 that is, where displaced people are passive recipients of an intervention \u2013 or perhaps \u2018doing for\u2019, where there is limited participation but no real agency or power. The goal of true, meaningful partnership requires \u2018doing with\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n

In moving up the levels, from \u2018doing to\u2019 towards \u2018doing with\u2019, consultations become more meaningful because they occur more frequently and allow greater diversity of participation. Moreover, consultations are meaningful when they allow displaced people to express their multiple forms of \u2018lived\u2019, \u2018expert\u2019 and other knowledge,[4]<\/span><\/a> and when these expressions are recognised and validated by all consulting parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Doing to\u2019 occurs when non-displaced humanitarian, research and governmental actors fail to consult with displaced persons, when consultations are superficial or tokenistic and lived experiences are not valued as expertise, or when these consultations serve the interests and priorities of outside actors rather than reflect those of displaced people. In extreme cases, \u2018doing to\u2019 can include cooptation of displaced voices: where people are represented or their experiences interpreted without acknowledgment of their agency, intellect and capabilities. <\/span><\/p>\n

The next level \u2013 \u2018doing for\u2019 \u2013 is an improvement but power asymmetries persist. While ostensibly displaced people are given a larger seat at the table, typically they are only selectively invited to certain high-level meetings, do not contribute towards meeting agenda setting, and are rarely permitted to invite other participants. The lack of full, equal access in turn limits the ability of displaced people to share their knowledge and they fall short of being considered \u2018experts\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Doing with\u2019 represents the highest achievement in advancing meaningful participation, though it occurs only rarely. Here, participatory conversations are open-ended with no pre-determined outcomes, and displaced people are involved in agenda setting, project design, implementation and evaluation. This close engagement by displaced people ensures that all research, interventions and programming benefit and are useful to displaced communities. Individuals are empowered to move beyond being research subjects or \u2018aid beneficiaries\u2019 to being experts and equals: displaced persons\u2019 lived and expert knowledge are equally acknowledged. Through co-creating space for knowledge production, persistent power asymmetries begin to weaken. <\/span><\/p>\n

Practical steps beyond consultation <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Anila and her team at New Women Connectors have identified practical questions for stakeholders to evaluate their current participatory approaches. This list of questions is not complete but includes suggestions for how self-reflection can begin.<\/span><\/p>\n