 there we go it's official and I think the just worth saying that the usual zoom house keeping applies we want this to be as participatory as it can so as you have questions please do raise your hand or use the chat function and we can come to those. I'm going to just share my screen so we can see the agenda so just one second there we go okay so can you see someone let me know if they can see a slide that says HLP area of responsibility meeting that's the thumbs up I see great yeah we can see it brilliant okay good so our agenda today we're going to hear an update from a recent collaboration that happened between the mine action AOR and some HLP colleagues as well and this was will be explained by our colleague shortly but it was a an initial workshop with mine action practitioners and something that we think will be the start of more work going forward together we're going to spend some time focusing on the work of the evictions task force in Libya which we're going to hear from Anna and Richard they're going to share about some of the work they've been doing and developing and they're really keen to get your sort of reflections comments feedbacks ideas on that so that's what we're going to spend a bit of time on then I'm going to give a brief update on some of the things that are happening at the global level from the AOR side and then I think we'll have a an update from the HLP and shelter colleagues to be confirmed and then I want to just hear from all of you if you want to share for a few minutes about what you've been working on and then if there's any other business that comes up through that process then we can air that here and you know there will be taking notes from the meeting. Johanna my colleague is here to do that so I'm really thankful for her and we'll be sharing the minutes of this and and also recording and any of the links or the documents that come up through the through the call so yeah so just one say again really great to have you here and I will now pass over to Roxana a colleague from MAG who is going to give a brief update on recent work with the Mind Action HLP AOR. Roxana please you know introduce yourself and yeah and share about about my work together I'll just stop sharing the screen one second. Hi Jim hi everyone thank you so much for inviting me to this meeting I am Roxana Baboliku and I am the international policy manager at MAG. Let me just see if I can share my screen I just prepared only three slides I don't know if you can can you see my screen? Yes we see that one. Okay so yeah MAG supported the HLP and Mind Action AORs together with NRC to deliver a workshop in January this year. The aim of the workshop was really to enable Mind Action AOR members to learn about HLP and the overlap between the two areas of work and how we can better collaborate with each other so it was an opportunity to exchange best practices as well as identify challenges and there were a lot of challenges as well as some solutions so it was really great to have more than 50 people on each day both Mind Action and HLP practitioners be able to to exchange thoughts and compare notes on that subject because you know in the Mind Action Sector we were always aware of the fact that clearance can change the value of land and there is potential to lead to property disputes but we haven't really systematically integrated HLP considerations in our work as a sector so really we hope that this was like the beginning of a conversation so different participants had different level of knowledge so we started with a presentation on some key HLP concepts that Jim kindly delivered to make sure that our Mind Action colleagues are all on the same page and we also had a presentation from MAG and NRC where the two organizations worked together in 2019-20 to systematically integrate HLP considerations across MAG's program in Iraq and we had dedicated donor funding for that project so it was really a really useful example of how it can be done in practice and it was great that we had a lot of participants from very diverse contexts so you know ranging from the Middle East to Colombia and Cambodia and Senegal so it was a very interesting mix and we heard very different examples of how Mind Action and HLP can cross over for instance just to mention a couple of short ones one came from Afghanistan but I think it's happening in other contexts as well where because of insecurity of tenure people don't actually want their land demined because they are afraid of land grabs later on so that can can lead to refusal of clearance operations or in some more extreme cases even laying or relaying of mines to keep that land undesirable but we also had interesting examples of where you know risk education is also relevant like So yeah so in the context of land reclamation and refugee returns processes from Kenya to Somalia risk education was something that was done and but done fairly late in the process and one of the lessons from that was that Mind Action should be integrated early on in returns processes so you know it was an initial conversation and we had very broad and diverse experience very different examples but some of the kind of recurring issues and findings that that came up were similar across some context so I'll just take you through some of the key findings and then the recommendations that we came up with and they do match quite well so from a Mind Action perspective tasking and prioritization is really important that is basically the decision on what gets cleared first considering how limited our resources are but that decision is very often done by national mine action authorities with varying degrees of agency from the mine action operators so one of the findings was that we need to find a way to raise awareness with mine action authorities to make sure that HLP considerations are taken into account from this initial planning phase then there were particular issues around the practical integration of HLP and community engagement the mine action sector already does a lot of community engagement and we have these community liaison teams that already do you know risk education and survey monitoring and evaluation so they go and they already ask a lot of questions so one practical exercise that we need to think of as a sector is how do we review the kind of information that we collect so that we can integrate HLP without making the whole process to burdensome for the teams and overwhelming for the communities another aspect was the long-term impact assessments because we actually as a sector we don't really know or we certainly don't have sufficient data to demonstrate if land grabs occur on land that we've cleared and that is because a lot of the impact assessments that we do are and sometimes by necessity a fairly short term they tend to be done six to twelve months after clearance because funding cycles are quite limited so there is definitely a need for longer-term impact assessments to observe that land use and see if it leads to HLP issues for down the line and also with regards to limited funding the other aspect is you know integrating HLP as well as conflict sensitivity more broadly into operations is a qualitative aspect and that can sometimes be a bit challenging to include donor proposals when we are often pushed for a meter squared of cleared land so that is another challenge and finally an issue that is really important across the board is women's property rights of course as mine action actors we are fairly limited in what we can do to address that though there's definitely a lot that we can learn from our HLP colleagues and there is potential opportunity to re-examine the kind of disaggregated data that we collect in mine action and how that can be used and also potentially referring any issues regarding women's property rights to HLP specialists so those were some of the key finding and challenges and then the recommendations really tried to respond to that so one activity that would be useful is to continue to raise awareness you know I think it's really important to do that both with practitioners to continue this discussion that we've started and to learn from each other but it's also really important that we raise awareness with national authorities because they are the ones who are you know coordinating the process and prioritizing the tasks in country so it's important to do that but also to raise awareness with donors so that they start including more of those qualitative aspects in proposals so that we can do more of this type of work and this can be done both at an international level through international conferences but it should also be done at a national and potentially regional level there there's potential there to explore more regional cross-pollination and learning because challenges are more likely to be similar in countries from the same region so yeah in terms of improving collaboration we also had a presentation from UNHCR on the global protection cluster community of practice and that idea is certainly one that would be useful especially as we look to learn more from each other having the forum where people can ask and answer questions on specific topics would be very useful we want to do a repository of resources on the linkages between mine action and HLP there are already resources on the mine action AOR website and I believe some on the HLP AOR website as well so that is definitely a good starting point and something that we'll look to build on build upon there's opportunity to do more partnerships with academia as I mentioned we don't actually have a lot of data to to demonstrate the impact the long-term impact of our mine action work so there's an opportunity there and finally an an IMS technical note is something that came up I don't know if IMS is something that HLP actors are familiar with there are the international mine action standards and technical notes can be produced on on various aspects of mine action and because they are you know quite a key reference for our sector having a technical note an IMS technical note would definitely help provide that kind of guidance but would also help put the right amount of weight to the subject especially as we look to advocate with national authorities right I think that was pretty much it I'm happy to answer any questions we do have a summary report that is almost finalized and will be shared with with a broad range of stakeholders very soon so yeah you'll have the opportunity to to read more about it but if there are any any questions I'm happy to answer them now thanks thanks so much Roxana that's a really great overview and I think it was really clear just where there's a lot of connections to be made and one of the real strong things that came through the opportunity to gather was just that awareness of where do we work you know where do HLP actors work where are mine action people working and and how can we collaborate and I think this is part of a sort of a beginning of more working together so it was a yeah thank you for all your support in in organizing that it was fantastic to make those connections and this will be something that will be ongoing I put a link in the chat if you want to just sort of sign up to be make sure you're getting the updates around that work we're doing together then please do feel there or just let me know on here um but yeah are there any questions uh Roxana hello this is Lee millennia I have a question do you hear me yes we hear you well please go ahead Roxana do you know do you have a kind of idea of the who had ownership of the land before the mines were placed so that um uh what was the land used for in most of these cases um after the mines were removed thanks Lee I think uh well that is very context specific um it really depends from you know in in some cases like for instance in Southeast Asia I know in a lot of places the government has a lot of control over land so they can actually allocate land to people or to companies and really they have the greatest control over how land is used but that's not necessarily the case everywhere so I think one of the challenges that came up in the discussions that we had was exactly that that there isn't necessarily like a one size fits all and from the experience that we had in in Iraq working together with with nrc um was that we had to like keep going back in refining the the practices and the the way we we engage with communities but um in in general what we see is that sometimes in many cases some of the most fertile land is uh contaminated either because uh of a you know strategic intention to deny access to the opposing forces to the most valuable land or in other cases I know there was a study from Ohio State University in in Cambodia where actually the most fertile land was likely to be contaminated with explosive ordinance from cluster munitions because when they fell on fertile soil there were less likely to explode than on flinty soil so um that is why I think uh this discussion between mine action and hlp actors is really important because it tends to be there's no rule and it's very context specific but it tends to be then in many cases it's some of the most valuable land uh agricultural land that tends to be um contaminated and that that means that there is potential for disputes for the down the line thank you thanks Anna you have your hand raised yeah please go ahead thanks a lot um so my question would be about any lessons learned in terms of um using this collaboration for stronger government engagement and hlp focused advocacy uh if you also have any any recommendation or any lessons to share on that yeah I mean I think definitely one of the the first aspects is is raising awareness especially with with mine action stakeholders um obviously our you know we haven't done this kind of collaboration and advocacy extensively but I think there is um potential to learn more from each other about what different kinds of government stakeholders we each engage because there are also stakeholders that are responsible for the property rights basically so um you know I I don't really want preempt a lot of legwork that needs to to be done there but there is maybe potential to connect the dots between the the mine action governmental stakeholders and and those that are relevant for for hlp issues to make sure that when clearance is prioritized we know exactly how how that land is is going to be used and and what potential there is for issues further down the line thanks yeah and I think that's something we're looking at how we can best develop and work out what the the next steps are for that one aren't we okay so I'm just final question I'm afraid just because of our our time but um Gabrielle I see your hand raised please ask ask your question and then we'll uh thank you very much uh mine is not a question but just to comment uh because mine action and the NRC also did similar research in South Sudan in 2013 looking at the uh land access after when the land uh land mines are being cleared so they did the research in one of the county called uh Lanyakant in central territory state and there were a lot of issues um one of the collegiate asking person that was there any specific ownership issues or disputes and it was actually found out that in that particular area when land was cleared the rightful owners were trying to come back and they wanted their land but the government said look you cannot have this land because we don't know what is still there maybe there could be still some remnants of uh land mines and this land will be under government so there is that kind of a controversy but I think uh that the research was important and they actually uh informed a lot of issues before HLP and land mine was looked at as a separate thing but through that research uh we were able to really learn a key lesson that there is the interface between the two when especially when the clearance happens and the handover of the land back to the owners always there is HLP issues and it is important to kind of uh work closely to achieve that with the HLP technical uh maybe working group or HLP uh area of uh responsibility uh to handle such issues thank you very much and thank you my colleague for the wonderful presentation. Thanks Gabrielle yes I mean that makes the point really well that it's about how do we see these sort of collaborations better integrated rather than working in our separate areas and I think that's something we're we're interested to think how we can do best um so yeah please would love to you know hear your suggestions comments ideas for for that work and um and yeah thank you Roxana for for M work also I just say Gabrielle if you have any reports or documents from that that work together please do share them we can include them in our repository um yeah definitely I will say it with you I hope we be right now as this was presenting I was also looking at you I will share with you after this thank you and the same goes to everyone else as well so Roxana thanks so much for joining us and um yeah look forward to keeping our our collaboration going thank you Jim thank you everyone thanks for having me take care bye thanks thank you and I just before we move on to the next thing I just wanted to mention Ukraine briefly because I imagine for most of us it's been um you know part of our our sort of awareness but also maybe featuring as part of discussions and and meetings in terms of how on earth do we respond to what's going on there and what's happening and just to say that from the HLP AOR side we over the years have been supporting and working with the HLP technical working group there um and they've been focused a lot on sort of compensation issues and and issues around um people losing their hopes that are being used by military at various uh points in the the sort of ongoing conflict from the last seven or eight years there um and they've been thinking a lot around durable housing sort of return integration resettlement and um and so I think at the moment of course we don't know what's what's going to unfold over the next few weeks and um we're sort of you know really thinking a lot about colleagues who are there um and and all those people who are often being displaced but I think there's going to be a need to um work on those same sorts of issues compensation return restitution that we work in in so many cases but but that's something we'll be starting to look at how we can respond to over the coming months when that becomes more relevant so um again let us know if you'd like to be involved in part of those those conversations um I think there's so much experience and knowledge on on restitution and compensation and and how those processes work in this group um and it'd be great to start thinking about how we can support colleagues and people there who will very much need that um okay so now we're going to turn to our colleagues in in Libya so I'm really pleased to have with us today Richard Evans who's the shelter cluster coordinator sorry shelters an NFI sector coordinator within Libya and with UNHCR and we also have Anna Maria Geller who's the Libya protection sector co-coordinator and she's with DRC so um want to hand over to uh uh Richard and Anna who are going to talk to us about the work of the eviction task force there um something that's been sort of developing some sort of tools and processes and responding to what's what's going on um so yeah over to you thank you very much um so many thanks for inviting us again because we already have the opportunity to discuss with uh in this forum uh the idea for the eviction task force it's it's very beginning uh so now we are happy to to give you an update on the progress we've made but also use this opportunity to pick your brain on some of the questions that uh that we are facing a year down the line so if we go to the next slide just to recap that the eviction task force was set up by the protection and shelter NFI sectors in January 2021 uh we have the same group of core partners um and many things to do them for for their contribution to our work so now some of them are online with us today but we also do engage with other actors on ad hoc basis depending on the specific situation we are dealing with uh such as OCHA or other organizations and GOs working in specific areas and when we developed the TOR for the eviction task force um over over a year ago we wanted this group to work specifically on certain tools and guidance that could be then taken by partners or other coordination mechanisms and to use when responding or addressing eviction issues um and we have three main type of outputs so um related to advocacy related to operational guidance um so how to program and how to respond and then to information management and we'll also touch base on um or provide you with a detailed overview of those in a moment uh but we also wanted to mention a bit about the rationale for um for the eviction task force uh so if I can ask for the next slide uh contextually um in Libya we are dealing with a situation where HLP concerns are growing as the stabilization process continues since actually a bit of a flip side of quite positive um development in the situation when we talk about internally displaced people we see evictions which are related both to to pressure expectation of returns uh but also related to individual private owners reclaiming property uh maybe I will mention just one of the feature of displacement in Libya is that there is a relatively small number of people residing in collective sites and spontaneous settlements and a lot of them are actually renting property or living in an abandoned building uh but we've also observed in the last month a deterioration of the situation of migrants refugees and asylum seekers in several urban areas since July we've seen mass expulsions um of non-lybians um and this also impacted their ability to enter the the rental market but operationally also the reason for why we set up the eviction task force is that we don't have an HLP AOR and to be also very honest our um the resources among our partners to to work on HLP issues are limited to uh very few partners so the response to evictions is spread across the protection sector shelter and a fire sector and the cash and market working group uh but we as we do are a relatively small response we don't have subnational clusters but we do have regional area coordination groups which are actually also meant to to carry forward the the operational side of the response in addition in terms of the coordination architecture this is quite challenging for us because both sector coordinators but also many of our NGO partners are facing issues in terms of receiving visa so to a large extent the coordination is done remotely and so is also to a large extent the the response we've seen a visa suspension for several months now in in Libya so all this leads us to the question about roles and responsibilities and how can the eviction task force what should be its role how can we leverage maybe more direct presence of some of our partners in the coordination architecture and I'll hand over now to to Richard to also tell you a little bit more about the products that we have developed uh in the last year thanks Richard we don't yet hear you just in case you're muted yes uh Jim you set the you set the trend to do that yeah so the task force has produced five um products which work together as a suite uh the first one we did was key messages which sets the common position for all of us it was endorsed by the Intersector Coordination Group and shared within the HCT now in Libya we don't have a CCCM sector so we took that gap and said well we need to have information about all the settlements that we have and so we produced a very standard document there but I think what is perhaps more interesting is something that we did was the eviction threat index I'm just I've got someone in the background yeah we did the eviction the eviction threat index which looked at a an array of parameters and helped us try and prioritise which of these settlements and which areas were most likely to be evicted so that we could concentrate as Anna says our limited resources so that was a unique development to us the next piece that we did was what we're calling the eviction tracker and now this is a cobo based tool and it allows partners and a vast array of them to enter data that they see about an eviction we've trained over 50 colleagues from feedback helplines to to um you know frontline field workers in how to fill out this form the tracker has two parts to it the first one helps us respond because we get notification that someone has done a trip done an entry and then rsop says we have to do something within 48 hours a referral or take it to the larger eviction task force group but it also allows us to get a handle on what's going on the broader picture as you can see from these dashboards we've got 97 submissions so far and again this is how all the products work together this then allows us to feed that back up into those key advocacy messages by looking at trends who's getting evicted where they're getting evicted and what are the circumstances around those evictions the next product that we did was try to get as practical as we can because we saw in evictions particularly the big ones it can be very chaotic and we wanted to make sure that there were no gaps and there was no overlay between different partners so we we listed out 17 possible activities that you could do and we split them over the four different categories as you can see um on the screen um and that allows us Anna and I and the task force as a coordination body to clearly assign tasks you do this you do that you do this and they can see how everybody's working together a little bit of a function of of Libya because we are a small humanitarian response and so we need to work together it's also acting as a tool library as a depository for all that information like needs assessments stakeholder analysis so that we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel the last thing that we've done is the actual okay we're having an eviction so let's let's make sure we are there we are physically on there to to monitor that and we have a checklist on that and that's very much based on the HLP AORs dignified departure so I'm just going to leave you with a couple more thoughts on the product side of things first one I just want to I just want to make it clear that the eviction task force we cover all eviction cases whether they're singles multiples or mass evictions we cover all that information together we can then disaggregate it accordingly and we're also talking about the full caseload that we deal with in Libya so it's IDPs and I guess returnies as well and I guess host population but mainly IDPs refugees and the migrant population and the other bit of learning that we've had from this is it's all very well to create these tools as we all know and and to set them up but there's quite a lot of maintenance and upgrading that needs to be done so it's it's about keeping that whole process going and making sure all the different products speak to each other in the correct way so that's what we've produced now I'm just going to hand over to Anna because she has some questions for you guys so we wanted to use this opportunity to also ask you for your advice and thoughts on a few questions I think the one we are that is most critical to us now is what do we do next with the eviction task force as mentioned initially Tiorra was set to develop this suite of tools and hand them over to to certain existing coordination mechanisms or bodies or actors to implement them but as Richard mentioned we do see a need to keep them maintained and we do feel some sense of ownership so we are wondering in this context what should we do next with the eviction task force should we transition and try to transition into an HLPA or should we keep it should we look at other coordination mechanisms or should we identify maybe a partner who can take lead on that and then we also wanted to go a bit further into your experience on engaging directly on advocacy and how we could do that in the context of remote management and our remote presence especially as coordinators who should also take the risk of advocacy and not necessarily easy issues away from from the partners who were implementing the response and then also a question on whether you think the tools that we've developed for Libya and but also to be very honest we sometimes feel that are maybe too complicated for the scale of of needs that we are dealing with but could they be applicable for for other contexts and how thank you thanks Anna thanks Richard so there we go we have some really clear good questions based on a really clear good presentation around what's been developed what they're responding to a little bit and and then yeah this moment now of having developed some tools got it working what then happens next and I I know for a fact there are people on the call who have got really good experience working in in in various contexts but where evictions are one of the the key kind of protection issues or the key HLP issues that that come up and that you're dealing with so I just really love to hear some thoughts from people so you can either address one of these questions you can address all of them at once you can ask a question but yeah whilst you're all thinking of those I'll just pass to John who has his hand raised thanks do you hear me yes hear you well I really like the presentation there's a great deal there a number a couple of things that I think that can maybe be built off of the great work that you've done so far post eviction of course we have broadly that the problem of what happens to that HLP going forward ideally we would like at some point restitution to take place but evictions can take place for a reason and a big reason there is to sell on that HLP or transfer ownership elsewhere so you have a secondary occupant you essentially are trafficking in it we have seen though that with increased visibility of of an eviction an illegal eviction in other words that there is a problem with a property that decreases the prospect that a legal transaction will will take place so so it acts as a a break if you will on being able to sell that that HLP and thus sort of increasing the prospect of of restitution so I've actually seen this in a number of of complex and so where there's been confiscations evictions expropriations once it becomes visible even internationally that there's a problem with even a specific HLP that really puts the break on selling that on so so ultimately of course you need a good faith purchaser who assumes that their purchase is going to be permanent in order for them to pay for it in the first place in order for there to be to be a market in this expropriated HLP so by making it very visible that there's a problem with a specific HLP you actually put the break on that and making restitution easier one thing I was thinking about your your eviction tracker excellent is that you could use it for that okay you could you could use the eviction tracker to make it visible and one thought would be in addition to of course supporting the notion for creating an AOR in Libya I think that'd be a great idea would be to maybe elicit the support of other international actors in in making visible the evictions specific evictions that are that are taking place in in in Libya in order to kind of up the visibility aspect of it as a tool to to make the road toward restitution earlier and I'll just sort of end this with the question I have I wasn't really clear on how did the information get gets into the tracker is that the individual HLP owner who has been addicted are they uploading their information directly into the tracker or is it someone doing it on their behalf I wasn't really clear about that thanks thanks John Anna Richard would you like to respond to well either the comments and or the question at the end Anna Anna can respond to the comments but I can do the easy bit and yeah no John it's done by either someone going to the house and visiting so it's done by an international partner or a local partner or it's done by people phoning up a helpline and then the person on the other end will fill in here so it's not a self-reporting system it's reported by others and Anna do you have any thoughts on on the on the comments sure so in terms of the of the dashboard we do intend to to make it publicly available when aggregated at Montica level which is admin level three so we did have recently some discussions with the partners whether this creates any risks but the the decision is to to go ahead with with this level of aggregation we probably will start slowly by sharing it with different actors who are either part or linked to the humanitarian response before we posted on maybe on public websites that are frequently visited just to see if there is any there is any risk I think the library response is quite risk aware when it comes to to share information and sharing data so we also don't want to endanger the trust and collaboration with partners we already have but we definitely did already started discussions about how we can use the dashboard and the information that comes from the eviction tracker to to boost a bit our advocacy products and make them more context-specific so even if we wouldn't necessarily be keen to sending the link to the dashboard to the different municipalities we could definitely have a one-pager with some with some key analysis points and and start from there Thank you oh thank you John as well for your comment I'll go to Deleani next and and then also just want to highlight there's a question in the chat asking if anyone has experience using their reparations framework as a remedy or deterrent in cases of forced eviction as classified as a gross violation in international law and I believe that's from Joseph so yeah have a think about that and see if that's something that is relevant and maybe Joseph I'll come to you later if if we need a little bit more explanation but um Deleani over to you oh and please also do introduce yourself in terms of where you're working and your context thanks I can't hear you just now I don't know if you're muted sorry um so good afternoon everyone my name is Deleani I'm co-chair of the HLPA Y Mozambique I was just wondering about one this tracker when you have all this data and we know exactly what caused the evictions what how can we do uh to prevent them I mean for the in terms of security of tenure could we in having this this data that uh that caused these evictions can we do anything to prevent these evictions in terms of security of tenure and in the context that you are working so I think that's a question yeah sorry go on yeah no very um very good question what's the point in collecting all this if we can't do anything uh I've just gone back to the um to the graphic I don't know if you can see because it's small print but it's big on my screen down the bottom right hand corner you've got some numbers basically what that's saying is um out of all the events that we get we have tried to do an intervention in in 18 percent of them so we've got the reports in time and we have a partner who is ready and the partner has gone and tried to um change the course of that eviction so that's one in five and then one in five again so 23 percent of those we've actually been successful so we've managed to renegotiate or we've managed to find a a way if it is a payment issue um so we've managed to yeah we've managed to sorry Anna is the other side of the office has given me hand signals but we've managed to do it so uh yeah so we are we are trying to get um involved where we where we possibly can but it's again it's it's some of the context of Libya I would imagine if we were in a different context we've both worked in Somalia before where you can physically get through a lot more sites then I think we could actually increase those numbers is that all right Deli Ali Deli Annie this is perfect thank you so much for this answer thanks I mean that'd be really interesting too if others have um you know experience of that being able to you know essentially intervene between understanding that there's a threat and then being able to help prevent that um or other people who've been working in different contexts Somalia was mentioned there I know others have been working on these issues in many places so do have it have experience of being able to um link the threat being reported to then actually being able to do something to stop it it'd be great to hear examples where people have been doing that um and um also I mean the question on coordination is a good one an interesting one um do people who work on evictions do they find that that work fits well with within the protection cluster uh within the you know HLP working group or AOR structure or have they seen it work in other ways either with a maybe a national local partner or another agency or actor taking that on um please be be free and share your comments and ideas because we really want to hear from you um or you can put it in the chat as well if you would prefer but it'd be good to hear hear some experiences um I'll pause for a minute and see if anyone has anything to say Fati please hi hi thank you um no thanks for the presentation um it made me think a lot on some of my experiences as well working in Somalia and some of the things that have helped because that's also a country context that really deals with forced evictions as one of the main violations of HLP um and what we found that worked a lot too was really getting the local authorities involved and making sure especially depending on where we were tracking some of these evictions um evictions a lot of them were happening on informal settlements um and so it was really important to make sure that the local authorities um were involved and at that time the BRA was also developing a durable solutions task force um and even working with communities directly to make sure that they had awareness over their rights and how to advocate for their rights if they felt that there was an eviction um impending and interestingly enough some of the things that we found too is as we were trying to um work on this type of advocacy is a lot of times the accountability part is challenging because it becomes difficult to kind of determine um who the landlord is it's a context where there's a lot of gatekeeping especially with um large plots of lands that are then used for either refugee resettlement or for displaced persons and um it was just really difficult because you really realize like who do you hold accountable and then you realize that you're not even really dealing with the actual property owner half the time and so kind of unraveling some of these layers um was a bit helpful in getting um authorities also involved and kind of coming up with unique ways we also just worked on um even outside of Moqadishu on creating pamphlets that had information on accessible ways of using the different forms of legal mechanisms that were in place um and kind of just having a lot more awareness I mean obviously it didn't stop the occurrences of forced evictions completely but it wasn't at the peak that we saw um in previous years in 2018-2019 um so yeah and then I realized I didn't introduce myself so I'm Fatih Aigal and I'm a land and conflict analyst for UN Habitat's GLTN Global National Network thank you thank you um Sarah Richard I don't know sorry Anna Richard I don't know if um that links with local authorities is something that you're able to you know pursue and develop with with maybe with partners on the ground or if that's something that's even possible so maybe I'll comment on that um this is something ideally we would really like to do the challenge for us is that um not being in Libya most of the time or um is is creating obstacles to to build these relations that would help us then to touch on the more sensitive issues um so we are also wondering how we can do that in a situation where uh where we are not really there and how much of that um can we transfer to selected partners how much of that can we request partners to who are um in Libya um how much of that risk actually can we expect them to to accept thanks Anna um yes and so sorry I just saw another question come in and it distracted me I'm quite easily distracted this is the problem with these multiple things going on isn't it um some people seem to surf it very smoothly and I'm a bit more obvious um anyway so a couple of questions and comments just coming in um so we have that that question from Joseph about if does anyone use the reparations framework because that'd be interesting to hear from anyone if that's something that they've they've looked at and and Joseph if you want to comment a little bit more on that please please do um Laura suggesting sort of potentially establishing an HLP or a technical working group but partly to sort of broaden out the scope of uh dealing with HLP issues so um yeah of course eviction will be part of that but that might be something that that we could go and of course we're here to support that process and um yeah I understand it it requires steps and uh commitments and all that sort of thing but it'd be good to discuss that if that's applicable um and um I have a question I think yes is a question from Ahmed um so as Libya is more controlled with the clan system is there a methodology to engage with the leaders of of the tribes sorry I say yeah to face the forced eviction for refugees and displaced persons so yeah so a couple of comments over to sure I mean Ahmed absolutely um as you as you rightly point out Libya is a very tribal very clan very militia-based um operations and that's certainly something that we do the militia around an informal settlement is very much a controlling factor and very much a stakeholder in any eviction process and and as as you'd see if you looked at our 17 activities around what you would do in terms of eviction interfacing with them is key to it um and then I just want to go back to to Lara uh Lara's comment absolutely we interesting you should say that because we felt that we were a little bit out on a limb with the eviction task force nobody likes a a second layer of coordination structures there's enough of them already so why create a new one so we actually try to move towards a HLP at AOR and as you say not only to broaden out the topic but also to give us a little bit more of a place within the architecture um our request was turned down on that one um but I do think it's something we should think about again particularly when we see another round of evictions coming up so yeah no thanks for maybe giving us the the encouragement to to ask again good and I'll follow up with you as well and we can pursue that conversation a little bit more be good to hear more um hand raised now Rania I think that might be uh Joseph is that right yes that's right um uh thanks I um I assume that you're posing a question to me to explain a little bit about this um in the in the field work on forced evictions uh and in the you know the human right to adequate housing and all the work that's gone on globally not necessarily in the conflict in the context of conflict um this uh reparations framework that has taken so long to work its way through the uh the commission on human rights eventually the council and and then to the general assembly has been really key as a legal argument against forced evictions and forced evictions meaning illegal evictions that don't follow the general comment number seven criteria for a lawful eviction uh those are subject to reparation which is a a package a bundle of entitlements and this is kind of a lawyerly question a lawyerly issue but for those who are working in the un system this is definitely a tool that is applicable but I just wondered to what extent people are aware of it and and if it's if it's used or could be useful in the field especially to remedy these things because it's clear in international law what the entitlements are it's not only restitution it's it's rehabilitation and compensation and you know seven different elements but also as a deterrent because there are so many entitlements that must be understood for the victims of forced eviction that that perhaps this could be persuasive for governments local authorities for example to dissuade forced evictions from taking place in the first place thanks so that sounds like a sort of a key pillar potentially in the sort of advocacy approach that one might take to raise that awareness across all to to understand the consequences of of these illegal evictions that might be do something to actually act as a deterrent and yeah yeah thank you for for clarifying that that's really helpful and Richard Anna did you want to come back on that whilst you're thinking about that I'll also say just a note in the chat I'm just sort of highlighting that clarifying the land ownership restarting the formal land registration system and reforming it to become more fit for purpose and responsive to the needs of current Libya will be a central precondition to address forced evictions in a sustainable manner so yeah so that's from Alberetta with UN habitat GLTN that you know there's that emergency response to what's happening and then there's that longer term more structural work that's needed as well and something to think about how those things connect and maybe that goes back to the question as well about sort of some kind of HLP working group AOR that can build those links with the longer term responses okay well thank you for your questions and comments everybody please do continue to add comments and questions in the chat if you would like and I just want to sort of say this this point thank you so much Richard Anna for sort of approaching me and you know being keen to to do this and the discussions we've had around this has been really interesting and the invite goes out to all of you if there is a something you're thinking about work that you're doing that you want to get some perspectives on it might be that you're considering what next you'd want to draw on the experience of others please do propose get in touch and let's you know see what we can do Richard you have your hand raised yeah just to just to say thank you thank you very much Jim and thank you for all the all the comments and I I'm just picking up on that self-reporting one and I think that would be a nice step to go as the next one is that people could report their own evictions that they don't need us anyway all many of those resources are on our website and I will put it up in the chat but if anyone wanted to get any more please contact Anna or myself and we can talk you through it and give you some of the the real insights behind it so yeah thanks very much Jim Anna do you want to have a final word thanks a lot not much to add feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to share the whole scope of our lessons learned and many things we're sharing great ideas for us to consider in the future thanks so much thanks thanks both of you and and just to say as well you know I often talk about these thematic working groups and interest groups that we have and one of them is around evictions and relocations and currently the people who were leading that are no longer in their positions so we have openings so if someone is feeling galvanized motivated to sort of draw together really keen sort of individuals who are working on these issues to sort of develop some plans and look at some activities or even just to create a forum for sharing the most sort of cutting-edge work that's being done on this then please do let me know because it would be great to see you active in that and I'd be available to support on the kind of logistics and administrative side as well so I'm not going just push you out there and leave you having to deal with all sorts of things so if that's something that would be of interest please let me know and I will be emailing all the people on that list currently to see as well but but yeah thanks so much Anna Richard that was that was that was really interesting really good okay so we have a scheduled 28 minutes left so I'm going to offer some updates just from the global AOR side just some of the things that we've been doing before I do that a couple of comments and updates around yeah just on the sort of broader scale so I'm pleased to introduce Jamal Brown so he is works with UNHCR now UNHCR and the AOR have worked closely over many years as with numbers of other review as well and have been missing an HLP focal point for a little while so it's great to have Jamal now with us working with us so Jamal would you like to introduce yourself and say hello and yeah some of the things that maybe have caught your attention so far yes well thank you very much thank you very much Jim you know I truly do appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this conversation today very enriching so far you know one of the things that I really appreciate from what I've really gathered from the conversations as far is the fact that it's really not academic in any way it's very much grounded in reality and it goes far beyond the normative and I think that's that's very important in light of the many challenges that we're currently faced with I think that is incredibly important you know having not been a part of this particular grouping at any point in time you know my I wasn't certain as to what to expect coming into this conversation but based on what I've gathered thus far something special is happening here and I truly do look forward to being a part of these conversations going forward you know just being able to to go outside of that sort of academic type of conversation the rudimentary conversations on HLP and and going down to country level identifying what the real issues are and really seeking to to develop solutions sharing best practices coping mechanisms from the ground I think that is absolutely critical so we merge the academic we we merge the global normative perspectives that we have with actual in-country experiences real experiences on the ground and and this is a place where the magic really happens so Jim thank you very much for inviting me and thank you all for for having me I truly do look forward to being a part of of this space to be an engage in this space going forward over to you Jim thank you thanks Jamal that's great we look forward to lots of fruitful collaboration with with UNHCR continuing as we as we go okay I'm just going to share my screen I just want to share a couple of updates with you great so I'm assuming can you see someone say yes or no in terms of can they see the Virgin yes excellent thank you great so I want to just give a little bit of an update on some of the things that are going on and highlight some just yeah things that might be of interest and yeah keep you informed so the first thing to say is that you know one of the things the AOR exists to do is act as a help desk a little bit like the Libya example where if people are facing particular challenges or or issues it can be technical issues it can be to do with coordination it can be just general questions on how to engage with HLP and that's something that's a real priority for us to be here to respond to and it's something that for this year and the next couple of years we're looking to develop and expand more to have a bit more of a regional focus around how we do that and an initial thing that's happened is that we are you know continuing to expand the roster of HLP experts so that's you know you and your colleagues who are willing to be as it were on call for when something comes up and we can convene a group of people to discuss what's happening maybe bring some ideas some perspectives some solutions so we've previously you know done this on a number of different areas and we've recently added some more people who are with expertise on displaced women's HLP rights to that list would love to see more people involved like with experience around returns and restitution and durable solutions these are things that keep coming up keep being asked about and so if you if you'd be interested in being on on that list and please do let me know it's not a big commitment it's that when things come in and there's requests come in we can convene a group of interested people to support and you know workshop talk through ideas so that's one thing we're we're sort of pushing on and it's been great to see that expanding over the last couple of months and I mentioned in my initial email that as well as these sort of global quarterly meetings we're setting up a sort of a bi-monthly update so that's basically a space where those of you working on HLP issues can just just share what you're doing so it's a very an informal space kind of a peer-to-peer exchange for sort of coordinators co-coordinators those that are working in HLP working groups or or whatever it is and it's it's it's to you know to be able to encourage each other to to share what's happening what's working well what isn't so what we will do is we will have those every couple of months and there will be an open space for you to bring bring what you're working on and we'll we'll see how that goes I think it could be something that could be quite useful but I I don't know until we try so we will we will try that and see see see what what happens with that and on that perspective we're also I've mentioned again before wanting to support and work better with our Francophone colleagues colleagues that are working predominantly in French and that's something that you know we need to be better at and we're we're looking at sort of developing our work on that. Tina would you just share a little bit about the upcoming meeting that we propose? Yes thank you Jim so this is Tina I'm with the L'Amitié Refugee Council based in Dakar as the each advisor for Western Central Africa and knowing that we have a lot of French speaking operations in our region and that also means some particular dynamics around HLC that are specific to our region we want to create a forum of exchange so due to some scheduling difficulties at my end we have not been able yet to organize the first meeting in 2022 as we had earlier planned but we're now looking at early April at the 6th of April and we'll be reaching out very soon to the group of all colleagues involved with HLC, AORs and working groups in Central and West Africa to agree on the date and the exact agenda for this upcoming meeting so this is something that Jim and I will be facilitating thank you. Thanks Tina so that's the 6th of April we're proposing for that but we will be sending communication around about that around okay so something else I want to highlight is that for a number of you this will be very relevant for some of you less relevant but the Global Protection Cluster as you probably know has a two sort of forums that happen during the year we have the kind of a thematic forum that tends to be in September October and we have a discussion around particular topics and the AOR has worked with you on some really interesting events for that another part of the forum is around the technical support to those of us that are coordinating and supporting that work in responses so for this year it's been proposed that the technical forum will happen in a regional level so that's to encourage sort of better operational focus and increasing focus on the context within which they're working and there's going to be sort of three main priorities around that field coordination package protection analysis and information management and then collective protection advocacy and then there'll also be space for specific sessions that are relevant to that region so as an AOR we're invited to join those those events and they will be a mixture of in person and online you may well have received the emails hopefully already if not do let me know and I'll make sure you do but as you can see there's the dates there for Istanbul, Dachar, Nairobi and Bogota for the different regions so that's just to highlight that that's coming up in the next five six weeks I'm hoping to get to some of those and be able to meet you and colleagues but yeah either online or in person but do please let me know if you have questions around that and we can discuss more about what's yeah what that what's relevant and how that might be a useful thing for you to be at a couple of longer term projects that we have that will be sort of coming together and so one of them which is sort of towards finishing and the other which is just beginning so we've been working with colleagues at Trustlaw to look at the potential for existing kind of legal mechanisms in country so the idea being that you know refugees face a lot of legal barriers in terms of accessing property and there's some barriers to owning or controlling land longer term the reality is that return is quite limited so we need those longer term solutions and the same for IDPs often controlling ownership of land is expensive and there can be a real difficulty in IDPs getting that secure tenure and that ability to stay safely in a place for a period of time so we've thought we needed to explore the potential things like community land trusts you know it's a tool that's been used with some success globally so that's where you know ownership is held by a third party normally that's a not-for-profit entity it might be an NGO or some kind of trust and they manage that land in trust so it can be used for conservation and for housing and one of the things we were wondering is is their potential for these things to be useful for the humanitarian context for that displacement context you know currently a lot of our toolkit is you know is around how do we facilitate returns how do we support that and of course that is vital and important but when people are displaced for a long period of time are there other things that might help us in our response so that's a piece of work that's going on in Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda and we have partnered with sort of law firms and legal actors in those countries to do that research and to report back so that's something that we'll be hearing more about in the coming weeks and then we'll be thinking about what to do with that and it'd be great to convene a meeting on that and discuss it and see what we can do the second project just to mention which is something that's beginning is work looking at developing sort of practice on the links between climate change disaster and HLP and that's a project that we're just at the early stages of pushing so that's within NRC but with a focus on the work of the AOR as well and the overall aim is to identify advocate the links between climate change and HLP with a focus on sort of durable solutions but also prevention and practical sort of implementation and we want to do that through the cluster through the AOR and so if that's something that you think might be relevant for your context you know I know that for example in Somalia in Afghanistan I've had conversations with colleagues where the sort of impacts of climate change are really affecting some of the work you're doing so it'd be great to hear about that more and something I'm really keen to do is to sort of develop a bit of a sort of a focus group around that so again I'll share a link to the form you can complete to register interest in that but please do also put that in the chat if that would be something of interest. A couple of last things just to mention is that the we hosted with UN Habitat and GLTN and UNHCR the launch for the key messages on Women Land and Peace and that happened on 16th of February and again I will share that link with you in the newsletter so you can see see that and watch the event it was a fairly well attended event there's 160 people there and it was a great great interventions examples of case studies people putting into practice some of the the things that we've been talking about in those key messages so that would be well worth yeah having a look at and one more thing oh yes just to mention we have the work plan for 2022 it's last year we developed a two-year work plan so for this year and last year and there's an there's the opportunity for you to to get involved and to say things that you would be interested in so please do fill those in I'm going to put links in the chat in a moment so that you can see see what's possible and yeah and it'd be great so you can have a look at all the different sort of activities that are in there there might be things that you're interested in being involved with and you can put your name in there and then we can look at how we can work together on that so that would be fantastic um so thank you for so before I move on are there any questions or comments just before we move on to hear from from you see Retta saying it's interesting the community land trust humanitarian response yeah good noted okay I'll take the silence as an encouragement um good so I'm going to now pass over to Patrice who is going to give us a brief update from the HLP and shelter perspective Patrice over to you hello everybody thank you Jim so I will take you through like two main points about a tools and guidance developed during this period and also support provided to different countries so about tools and guidance okay we work on HLP due diligence for shelter activities so the main point discuss or revise okay we're about a security of tenure and how to have a contextual approach and also and the point the point we're about also having giving access safe access to land and adequate housing and how to prevent eviction and how shelter practitioners should apply or should protect or should involve HLP issue during their activities so my main task was to combine or to update all the revision done through the last month and the comments came from all protection and shelter actors so the first draft is completed okay we will have an internal revision and finally I finally will share with other actors to see the next step to see what's our the next step again the shelter cluster global cluster shelter cluster HLP and AOR work on like a new new curriculum for HLP and the main the main the key the key point developed were about how to address HLP issue in shelter operation and again why do we have to to start with HLP right protection during from emergency to durable solution and how land governance should be a have to be have to contribute okay to protect a displaced population or affected population right and we went also through a site management and house communities how they deal with HLP issues and we also work on some tools about assessment and coordination this is the first draft and we work we work closely with shelter protection global a global HLP AORs and then we'll try to have a merge a document for the final tools and about very quickly about the support provided to country office okay we work closely with our Filipino teams okay to have a HLP component in the advisory notes on the what we call non-build zone okay this is a government policy to protect or to avoid that returnies or displaced population resettle in the heavily affected areas okay and again we provide some support to Malagascar team Nigeria and so on so this is a never-view of what was done during the last month thank you thank you Patrice and of course I should have introduced Patrice works also with Iberia as HLP advisors with the global shelter cluster so we work closely with them and they're available and always happy to support and yeah listen to what's going on so yeah thank you for that Patrice that's great really helpful and so we have some minutes left now for I'd love to hear updates from colleagues who want to share something they're working on something that is yeah it could be a challenge it could be something that's working well maybe take you know one or two minutes each to share an update as I open the floor to to you Evelyn please you go ahead let's thank you Jim so the update is for the HLP AR in Somalia and we have some pieces of work that we're working on so the first one is our priority for this year is to update our HLP AR strategy a lot changed between 2020 and 2021 so we've also realized that there are new streams of work that we need to be considering in Somalia so specifically for the HLP AR we are updating the strategy to include natural disasters we're also looking at access to justice and rule of law and emergencies specifically we have lessons from the COVID-19 situation so beyond first evictions and tenure security that we've been for a longer time we are now looking at investing in those new areas and developing new work streams as a priority for the HLP AR we're also shifting from eviction monitoring and response to more sustainable approaches to evictions so as you know we have an eviction portal that has moved from a trucker to a portal that is being used by the government and also manager and partners donors and also development partners so we are now shifting to a more sustainable approach we're working with authorities government authorities that is the local authorities where we have three eviction task forces led by the government we are also working with the national durable solutions secretariat and also the durable solutions units in the sub-national at sub-national level CCCM shelter and protection cluster to come up with a robust eviction strategy that is collective and to get ownership from the authorities because we know that with a lot of durable solutions work we need to get some sustainable approaches so looking at the authorities we're also looking at advocacy we're developing a paper as the HLP AR on HLP and durable solutions we also have some elements around resilience that we are including and what implications it actually has for land rights generally the paper will also make a specific recommendations for legal and policy reform that we recognize as a gap and lastly we are working on a toolkit that Jim you're very much aware of we've been supported by the global HLP AR to develop a toolkit on HLP and natural disasters this toolkit is very short but it is very strategic and it's very focused it has tools 10 tools that help HLP actors to respond in natural disasters so HLP actors are actually able to identify HLP issues prior to during and after a natural disaster specifically with recommendations on case studies from floods and the drought then also it has two manuals a my utility for trainers and then a manual for the participant and then that means that it builds capacity and it will be translated into Somali language it's very generic but to be translated into Somali will develop some case studies also in Somali it's now having going through a final review it will soon be disseminated widely but it's just going through an internal review within the HLP AR those are the pickups that are from the HLP AR in Somalia over to you Jim thanks Evelyn that's great and sounds like there'll be some good things for Richard and Anna to pick up on when they're thinking about Libya as well as as you develop those sustainable approaches to eviction response sounds really interesting and be great to share some of those things as they're developing I think they'd be really good to hear okay next go to Laura Kunial please thank you thank you Jim good afternoon good morning everyone and this is an update for a Syria regional crisis not necessarily an HLP AR but we just launched this past December a report together with UNICR that looks at the HLP issue that the Syrian refugee hosted in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq are facing and we are specifically looking at their property and their land back in Syria and so it's really the perspective of refugees who have now been abroad for almost a decade in terms of you know documentation that has been lost but also a level of destruction and damage in Syria, secondary occupation eviction and all the HLP violations that have been taking place in Syria and the report also looks at civil documentation challenges but I'll put the link on the chat because the vast majority of Syria related reports are for very limited dissemination these days but this is actually a public report so very much encouraging sharing with the members of the HLP AR thank you thanks Laura we'll be sure to include that in the newsletter as well to make sure it's shared widely and Gabriel let's go to you in South Sudan I believe okay thank you very much colleagues for the wonderful updates and the from South Sudan NRC who is pushing for the draft land policy which was uh been really delayed a lot and it was it actually reached the pandemic the previous pandemic but it was a kind of abandoned by the government now under the new peace agreement and the parliament is being reconstituted and the soon NRC pro-HLP second color working group is really working seriously to see that this document goes back to the parliament would you think this time is we have the backing of the minister of lands housing and urban development that is also really participating with us they have seen the importance of a piece of document because under the peace agreement all the transitional government is charging the kind of key role to adapt to this document and also the minister learned the administration and management during this period so I think we are working hard on that then the second thing is quickly it's about the women's HLP women HLP the document you highlighted about like the women enhancing women land rights and peace building also NRC especially in the area of wow under the previous project UNHB is also working hard to see that this project continues so we are using really available opportunities to advocate on the rights of women in South Sudan this is briefly what I I wanted to highlight thank you very much thank you Gabrielle thank you for those updates and over to Fasi thank you Jim just going to be really brief I know we're tight on time in furtherance of you mentioned the HLP help desk so at UNHB we've worked on finalizing the database of contacts from our side which are a list of people who are going to be key contacts and resources in various different countries on HLP issues and also in furtherance of the launch of the key messages on women land and peace we're also developing webinars surrounding those messages and I really actually want to appeal to everyone in the group today that if you have any particular need on the ground in any particular country I can leave my email here you can contact me and we can kind of work together to develop some custom-made webinars and trainings particularly around women's access to HLP and why it's important to maintain that so I'll leave it there thank you thank you so much thanks for those updates I will yeah so Fasi if you could just share your email in the chat that would be great in case people have those needs brilliant thank you and yes so that brings us to time thanks for your attention thank you to the presenters we've had joining us for our sort of my inaction colleagues what was Anna at the beginning from Anna and Richard from the Libya context thank you to Patrice for sharing about the shelter cluster and the work they're doing and thank you all for your wonderful contributions questions comments suggestions etc etc and I just want to say again if you have ideas or things that you'd like to have discussed in these meetings we have another one scheduled for June so please do get in touch and then we can organize something I'm also really keen to if there's particular things that are coming up that we can organize workshops around particular challenges issues situations again please do reach out and I'm really keen to have you involved so do let me know and I will help make that happen but yes thank you all for being here and if anyone can turn their camera off for a goodbye wave it's always nice to see see the faces but otherwise I look forward to seeing you in the coming months thanks so much goodbye goodbye cheers thank you