Contribution short abstract:

This paper explores how Syrian refugee-led organisations in Lebanon navigate shrinking civic space, creatively resist restrictive aid structures, and foster grassroots crisis responses rooted in dignity, while emphasising the need for systemic accountability towards host states and donors.

Contribution long abstract:

The 2016 World Humanitarian Summit and the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees marked pivotal moments in the global refugee regime by recognising the importance of directly funding local actors and fostering meaningful refugee participation. Despite these policy advancements, refugee-led organisations (RLOs) in the Global South continue to face substantial challenges, particularly in contexts like Lebanon where shrinking civic space increasingly constrains their operations.

This paper examines how Syrian RLOs in Lebanon navigate these adverse conditions and sustain efforts to facilitate refugee access to rights. Through 16 ethnographic semi-structured interviews with 12 interlocutors from six Syrian RLOs, conducted over a 10-month period, this study analyses the dual sites of shrinking space: within host states and the global refugee regime, including UN agencies, donor states, and international NGOs (INGOs).

Findings highlight RLOs' strategic adaptability, including creative navigation of political, legal, and civic challenges. However, the expectation for RLOs to independently reform host states' hostile refugee policies and problematic aid structures remains unrealistic. The research underscores the urgent need for systemic accountability, recommending the adoption of the Global Refugee-Led Network's meaningful participation guidelines for donors and host governments, and Asylum Access’s equitable partnership frameworks for INGOs.

This study concludes by calling for further inquiry into refugee leadership as a community-led practice, emphasising its potential not only within humanitarian responses but also as part of larger transnational diaspora movements advocating for political solutions to forced displacement's root causes.