Tip Sheet for Community-led Projects in Displacement Settings

Participation in decision-making about choices affecting their lives is a right of any individual experiencing displacement, and one of the main areas of community engagement (CE) that helps achieve accountability to the affected population in displacement responses. Community-led projects (CLPs) can be an effective modality for facilitating meaningful participation of the affected population, and to handing over the ownership of project decisions and assets to the community. CLPs can have a number of beneficial outputs such as community empowerment, self-reliance and when implemented through the CCCM Area Based Approach, they can lead towards community cohesion. Such initiatives are at the core of localisation efforts. This tip-sheet is addressed primarily to CCCM practitioners, however it can be utilised by others equally.
This document draws on the experiences and examples shared by practitioners during a series of workshops organised by the Community Engagement Forum together with the CCCM Global Cluster’s Participation in Displacement Working Group between May - July 2023. The aim of the workshops was to develop a common understanding of how to define CLPs, provide case studies of CLPs from different contexts, and to unpack the considerations, challenges and best practices from practitioners who have planned, implemented and handed over CLPs as a sustainable approach within displacement contexts.