Qudra 2 - Social Cohesion Guidance Notes

Published November 2023

Dialogue Reconciliation and transitional justice Research

These guidance notes provide practical tools and best practice for practitioners working on social cohesion programmes.

The tools provide guidance on:

developing and monitoring social cohesion projects
building local capacities to support social cohesion
dealing with key issues related to building social cohesion
working on social cohesion during economic crisis
addressing aid bias

In 2022 International Alert worked with the Qudra 2 programme to support the development of evidence-based guidance, training and exchange on social cohesion.

Qudra 2 is a regional programme seeking to strengthen resilience for Syrian refugees, displaced persons, returnees and host communities in response to the protracted Syrian and Iraqi crises in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey. The project is implemented by AECID, Enabel, Expertise France, GIZ and Hungarian Interchurch Aid and is co-funded by the European Union, German Cooperation and Spanish Cooperation.

One of the project’s main objectives was to strengthen social cohesion. After three years of implementation, various local implementing partners in the four Qudra 2 countries came together virtually to discuss their intervention strategies and the impact on social cohesion. Based on these discussions, International Alert developed five guidance notes in early 2023 to elaborate possible solutions for the common challenges identified and held workshops to share lessons and for Qudra 2 partners from the region to exchange experiences.

The 5 guidance notes are practical and experienced based, bringing together best practice and lessons from the project and project partners, as well as from across the wider sector. The guidance notes provide case study examples and practical tools for those individuals and organisations planning and implementing programmes on social cohesion.

The guidance notes are available in four languages (Arabic, English, Kurdish and Turkish) on the Qudra Programme website,

Guidance notes

How to approach social cohesion in programmes: explains what social cohesion is and the different forms it takes; how to engage project participants in the process of building social cohesion; and how to develop and implement interventions on social cohesion

Working on social cohesion during economic crisis: provides practical steps on adapting interventions to strengthen social cohesion during times of economic crisis.

Building on local capacities to support social cohesion: identifies practical steps for creating projects that strengthen local capacity for social cohesion

How to address the issue of aid bias: provides practical steps to ensure that the project does not reaffirm negative perceptions of aid, and to actively counter misinformation and misperceptions of aid.