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Community-Based Protection (CBP)

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Key points
  • Involve all relevant actors in CBP activities: local institutions, State agencies, civil society and community-based organisations, as well as forcibly displaced and stateless persons from all age, gender, and diversity (AGD) groups themselves. Coordinate with other national and international actors and avoid over-assessment
  • Identify community structures, and community-led initiatives; support and build on the community's existing capacities; recognize and make use of the active roles leaders and community volunteers play in their community. Avoid creating parallel structures
  • Every community that faces threats finds ways to protect its members. It is important to identify and understand community-led protection to support the positive protection mechanisms and mitigate any practices with harmful effects
  • Do not assume that all protection problems are due to displacement. Some, including intimate partner violence and discrimination against some groups, are likely to have a longer history and hence require a combination of emergency responses and a long-term approach to address them
  • Do not rush the process of building trust and engagement. It requires regular and consistent involvement and transparent communication with the community
  • Spend as much time as possible in the community and use all opportunities to engage with diverse members and structures. Do not make any promises to the community that you may not be able to keep

Post emergency phase

The post-emergency phase will allow for strengthening and deepening of CBP approaches and projects. This may also be the opportunity, when needed, to strengthen responses to individuals or groups particularly affected by the emergency. A relative stabilization of the situation may also allow for longer-term approaches to strengthen the capacities of community structures and organizations.

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