DEPP Protection in Practice Learning Snapshot

Learning by doing is the best way to learn, so the Protection in Practice project builds local partner capacity by training, mentoring and co-implementing projects with them simultaneously. This means that vulnerable people are helped at the same time as strengthening capacity.

Whilst local responders are the first to respond to crises and often have access to locations where civilians are most vulnerable, there is insufficient support for local organisations to make sure their programming doesn’t harm people and/or to make sure they are able to respond to protection threats like gender-based violence, detention, abduction or displacement. Adding to these constraints, global and national level coordination mechanisms are often very problematic for local responders to engage with.

The Protection in Practice project aims to make vulnerable people safer, whilst at the same time strengthening national protection capacity and disrupting existing power dynamics in the humanitarian sector so that more power is in the hands of people actually impacted by crisis.

Protection in Practice is part of the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP), a three-year effort financed by UK aid. The programme aims to strengthen local communities, organisations and individuals in disaster-prone regions of the world so that they themselves are better able to respond next time a crisis strikes.

To find out how this approach has changed the work of local and international protection actors in the field so far, read the Protection in Practice Learning Snapshot below.