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Self Report 2019

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 1B
    Act early

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to empowering Syrian civil society and strengthening its role in building the country’s future.
    • Advocacy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to act early upon potential conflict situations based on early warning findings and shared conflict analysis, in accordance with international law.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to make successful conflict prevention visible by capturing, consolidating and sharing good practices and lessons learnt.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    The organization believes that the peaceful civil society movement has a vital role in building modern Syria and countering extremists’ voices. Thus, Kesh Malek has launched Glimpse Newsletter which aims to shed light on the Syrian Civil Society that was revived after the Syrian uprising in 2011, showing civil initiatives and sharing inspiring stories of grass-roots and civil society movement inside and outside Syria.

    Glimpse is envisioned to be a reliable resource for readers interested in knowing more about Syria, the history, the society, and the thousands-year-old civilization. The monthly newsletter is issued by the media department in Kesh Malek, in addition to frequent articles that are published on the website https://glimpse.keshmalek.org/.

    Keywords

    Community resilience

  • 1C
    Remain engaged and invest in stability

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to supporting a political process that ensures transitional justice for Syria and works to restore a civil, democratic, pluralistic and secular State that respects human rights, justice and citizenship.
    • Advocacy
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to improve prevention and peaceful resolution capacities at the national, regional and international level improving the ability to work on multiple crises simultaneously.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    • Commit to address root causes of conflict and work to reduce fragility by investing in the development of inclusive, peaceful societies.
    • Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Any transitional justice track needs to respond to victims’ ongoing needs resulting from violations, and acknowledge the violations and their consequences. In early 2016, Kesh Malek launched Ta’afi (an Arabic word meaning 'recovery') project with the aim to empower, and protect survivors from political detention to contribute effectively to political change and to promote victims’ rights in Syria. The project works to re-engage survivors after their release as active members of society and seize their pivotal role to promote human rights and champion the victims’ rights of reparation truth and justice.

    Kesh Malek believes that forming Ta’afi was a step towards forming a task force to promote human rights and strives to achieve tangible procedures to stop violations committed against human rights in Syria. In 2018, the organization participated in several conferences and advocacy meetings, and enlarged its Ta'afi solidarity network to gather more than 100 members that are active in protecting human rights.

    Keywords

    Protection

  • 2C
    Speak out on violations

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to taking a leading role in the protection and promotion of human rights in Syria, working through its advocacy and human rights programmes to prevent and stop human rights violations.
    • Advocacy
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to speak out and systematically condemn serious violations of international humanitarian law and serious violations and abuses of international human rights law and to take concrete steps to ensure accountability of perpetrators when these acts amount to crimes under international law.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In addition to participating in meetings and conferences on the Syrian context where Kesh Malek actively emphasizes the importance of the protection of human rights, the organization advocates to 'place the spotlight' on the violations committed against human rights in Syria and works to change the public opinion and mobilize the international community and the Syrian community to address these violations of human rights and freedoms.

    In 2018, Kesh Malek participated in ‪#‎TruthNeverDies campaign to shine light on the violations committed against journalists in Syria and provide statistics from credible resources related to this issues, showing the enormity of the deterioration of human rights in Syria (https://www.facebook.com/kesh.malek.syria/posts/2347351131973101). Furthermore, the organization participated in #DemandingtheTRUTH demanding to know the destiny of the forcibly disappeared people and the forced disappeared civil society activists (https://www.facebook.com/kesh.malek.syria/posts/2419923578049189). Also, Kesh Malek condemned the assassination of activists Raed Al fares and Hamoud Jneid (https://www.facebook.com/kesh.malek.syria/posts/2387163974658483).

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability, Protection

  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to promote gender equality and protect women’s rights, with a view to ensuring that women play an active role in Syria’s future, reaching decision-making positions.
    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Fully comply with humanitarian policies, frameworks and legally binding documents related to gender equality, women's empowerment, and women's rights.
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity Leave No One Behind
    • Empower Women and Girls as change agents and leaders, including by increasing support for local women's groups to participate meaningfully in humanitarian action.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome documents of their review conferences for all women and adolescent girls in crisis settings.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Ensure that humanitarian programming is gender responsive.
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Empowerment of women and girls

    Kesh Malek's Gender Equity and Women Rights Program aims to promote gender equity and protecting women rights to reach a prosperous community where women play an active role in building the future Syria and their rights as citizens are preserved. One of the main goals of the program is to empower Syrian women to take leadership positions on economic, social, and political levels. Kafwe (an Arabic work meaning 'skilled' or 'capable') is an economic empowerment project that target groups of women enabling them to reach decision-making positions by participating in a capacity-building program that works to increase their professional, technical, and interpersonal skills. The project built the capacity of 182 women  in 2018 through several capacity-building projectsthat meet their needs.

    Raedat (an Arabic word meaning 'pioneers') is a project that aims to create future female Syrian leaders. The program works closely with potential female leaders enabling them to take an effective role-building in a civic democratic Syria, by enhancing their skills to advocate civic values, mobilize the community, and lead nonviolent activism. The project targeted 24 women in northern Syria in 2018 through tailored curriculums that prepared them to be future leaders.

    Other

    Furthermore, the program works to promote women rights and counter gender discrimination in all its aspects. Through 2018, Kesh Malek has launched several advocacy campaigns tackling several issues facing women, aiming to eliminate negative behaviors that prevent women from taking their role.

    1. #جريمة_لا_شرف (“no honor crime” or “crime, not honor”) is a campaign launched by Kesh Malek to seek solidarity and justice after a Syrian girl, Rasha Bseis, was murdered by her brother.
    2. In International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Kesh Malek launched a campaign to combat violence against women by producing several info-graphs that show the types of violence, and an advocacy video which shows the opinions of people talking about violence against women.
    3. A Story of hope, is an advocacy video produced by Kesh Malek to shine light on the importance of girls’ education, and the consequences of depriving girls from their right to continue their education on her family and the society.
    4. '10 things we need to know about discrimination against women in work environment', is an advocacy video launched to spot the light on the issue. 

    References for these projets are below:

    1 https://www.facebook.com/kesh.malek.syria/photos/a.314668955241339/2328314850543396/?type=3

    2 https://www.facebook.com/kesh.malek.syria/posts/2392112150830332

    3 https://www.facebook.com/kesh.malek.syria/posts/2232789250095957?__tn__=-R

    4 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2137063693001847

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Education, Gender, Strengthening local systems

  • 3E
    Eliminate gaps in education for children, adolescents and young people

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to working with local and international actors to provide inclusive, quality educational services in Syria that counter school drop-outs and fill the current educational gap.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In 2018, Kesh Malek provided formal and informal educational services for 11,388 children (5,870 boys, and 5,518 girls) in coordination with educational authorities and other civil society organizations.

    The organization aims to create a role model education in Syria that emphasizes children rights and their wellbeing. Therefore, the organization focuses on integrating structured psycho-social services in all its formal and informal education services, and creating a supervision mechanism that ensures protection of children and quality education services. Furthermore, countering drop outs is one of the main mandates carried out by the organization due to the long-term effects threatening the future generation of Syria.

    Although the gap in educational services is mainly defined by the number of children in need of educational services and drop-out statistics, Kesh Malek has identified creativity and innovation as a gap in the education system in Syria (a gap of more that forty years). The organization takes care to use modern methodologies in education, and conducts supplementary activities that create the space and the environment for children to increase their creativity. In parallel, awareness-raising activities are conducted continuously and aim to increase the comprehension of children and people regarding children rights. The voices of the children matters and must be heard, and as an application of the democratic alues cherished by Kesh Malek, the children participate in elections to choose their representatives in “Children Committees” who will convey their needs and expectations, and represent them in front of the schools administration, Kesh Malek, and the community.

    Keywords

    Education

  • 3F
    Enable adolescents and young people to be agents of positive transformation

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to working with youth to amplify their role in conflict mitigation and community mobilization, in particular through Youth Citizens Clubs.
    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Kesh Malek has identified youth as one of its main groups to be targeted through the Community Cohesion and Social Change program. In 2018, the organization created four Youth Citizens Clubs (YCCs) in several areas in northern Syria and supported youth in amplifying their voices and re-engage them in their communities as active members. The YCCs consist of 60 enthusiastic young males and females (30 males and 30 females) who conduct voluntary work and act as a driver of efforts of local actors to eliminate challenges facing the development of their local community.

    The work of the YCCs has many success stories which reflect the importance of such interventions. For example, the YCC in Kafrnaha has identified the need to have an elementary school for girls in the town as their priority. As a result, four classes have been re-activated to provide education for young girls; these classes depend only on local resources. The education assembly provided some support, some teachers volunteered, and the community has participated in covering some of the needed expenses for these classes.

    Keywords

    Education, Urban, Youth

  • 3G
    Address other groups or minorities in crisis settings

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to empower and protect Syrian survivors of political detention to re-engage them as active members of society.
    • Capacity
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Through the Ta’afi project, Kesh Malek works to protect survivors from political detention upon their release and provide them with several services to help their resettlement. The survivors are one of the main vulnerable group in the community and they have an important role to motivate the Syrian and international communities to act inf favour of detainees and protect human rights. Ta’afi has provided services for 34 survivors in 2018, which include housing, legal counseling, assisting in finding jobs and continue their education, and referral pathway for health, mental health and psychosocial support, and physiotherapy services.

    Keywords

    IHL compliance and accountability, Protection

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to strengthening local structures by using local capacities and resources for programme implementation, helping to build civil society’s own coping mechanisms and increasing their resilience.
    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to reinforce national and local leadership and capacities in managing disaster and climate-related risks through strengthened preparedness and predictable response and recovery arrangements.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase investment in building community resilience as a critical first line of response, with the full and effective participation of women.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to ensure regional and global humanitarian assistance for natural disasters complements national and local efforts.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    People-centered approaches (feedback mechanisms, community engagement, etc)

    In order to reach stability and a prosperous society, civil society organizations need to support and empower local actors to determine challenges to the development of their communities and engineer community-based solutions to overcome these challenges. During 2018, Kesh Malek worked on increasing its grassroots reach as one of its priorities, and accordingly piloted several approaches including youth citizens clubs and Kesh Malek clubs which encourage voluntary work by providing the space and tools needed. The organization is looking forward to scaling up its successful experience to target specific groups in the community such as women, while taking into consideration lessons learnt from previous programs.

    Building community resilience

    Kesh Malek has been working to enable civil society through several approaches including Glimpse newsletter. However, there is continuing need to empower the grassroots civil society organizations to have a more influential role in the community. through 2018, Aqed project (an Arabic word meaning "contract") built the capacity of 12 grassroots civil society organizations using a program that studies the needs of each organization taking into consideration the existing resources and their preferred intervention.

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Local action, People-centred approach, Strengthening local systems

  • 5E
    Diversify the resource base and increase cost-efficiency

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • Kesh Malek commits to being transparent and accountable to its donors and the broader community, aiming to build strong relations based on trust that increase the impact of our work as a civil society organization.
    • Policy
    • Invest in Humanity

    Core Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to promote and increase predictable, multi-year, unearmarked, collaborative and flexible humanitarian funding toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of humanitarian action for affected people.
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Kesh Malek is committed to accountability towards public and its donors, and believe that the feedback received regarding its operation contributes effectively to increase is cost effectiveness and enables the organization to improve its work.

     

    Kesh Malek has developed a strong and active Complaint Mechanism in all the facility supported by the organization. The mechanism include posters and roll ups that installed in each facility that contain contact information (email, phone number, and WhatsApp number) in addition to complaint boxed. The M&E personnel in the executive team supervise directly the mechanism and take the actions needed to respond to the complaint received.

     

    Furthermore, the organization has developed several people-centered mechanisms to receive feedback from its direct and indirect beneficiaries and distributed opinion boxes that are followed up by the M&E team. The mechanism includes committees which gather frequently and discuss the implementation of the projects and ways to improve the approaches carried out, Focused groups’ discussions FGDs that are facilitate as part of the monitoring and evaluation for the implemented projects, beneficiaries satisfaction surveys, … etc.