Local Engagement and Empowerment through Human Security to Address the Impact of Protracted Conflict and COVID-19 in Libya

This programme seeks to pilot an initiative to support the municipality of Sabha in the Fezzan region to establish a multi-sectoral network to better respond to the challenges and needs of different population groups in the context of the protracted crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the human security approach, the programme will prioritize bottom-up, community-based strategies, to help build the resilience of communities and strengthen their ability to cope with, recover from and lay foundations for better recovery and development during and after crisis.

KEY MATERIALS     
Programme Summary
Kick-off Meeting With the Ministry of Local Government

Considering the new health, social and economic challenges driven by COVID-19, the UN Country Team in Libya has set a particular focus on promoting and mainstreaming the human security approach in all interventions and outreach activities to better address widespread and cross-cutting challenges to the survival, livelihoods, and dignity of people. Indeed, the human security approach allows for understanding the complexity of the Libyan context and addressing the full range of human insecurities and their interconnected drivers in an integrated manner.

This programme is based on a comprehensive methodology that adopts a broad perspective on the challenges that local communities and authorities face and ensures that the implementing UN agencies are synergistically working on priorities that were identified by local communities.

The constant involvement of local stakeholders ensures that the programme activities are inclusive, people-centred, and context-specific, and fosters a sense of community ownership. To do so, the programme leverages and uses the knowledge, resources, and assets of Libyan partners at the national and sub-national levels.

The engagement with communities and local authorities will help prioritize the required actions and support in Sabha in the absence of a coordinated plan at the national and local levels. The programme will develop a human security-based action plan for the Sabha Municipality to address its populations’’ multi-faceted, interconnected challenges as well as the disproportionate impact of these challenges on vulnerable groups.