The localization of aid in protracted conflicts: rethinking the Triple Nexus through the grounded temporality of Syrian refugees

This article enters ongoing debates about the definition and purpose of localization by drawing on interviews conducted in 2017 with members of Syrian refuge-led Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) based in the border city of Gaziantep in southern Turkey, who were involved in cross-border assistance and support networks targeting civilians inside Syria. Syrian individuals and NGOs have played a major role across the Triple Nexus of humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding assistance to war-affected Syrians. Additionally, Syrian refugee-led NGOs have been a crucial link in the cross-border aid effort targeting Syrian civilians living in rebel-controlled parts of the country, areas that were deemed too dangerous to work in by most international organizations. Drawing on the narratives of members of Syrian refugee-led NGOs whose past lives in Syria, diasporic experience as refugees in Turkey, and aspirations for Syria’s future informed their cross-border assistance to fellow Syrians, I argue that the work of these refugee aid providers is informed by a ‘grounded’ temporality. This temporality emerges out of refugees’ personal connection to Syria and contrasts with the linear, donor-centric one that informs institutionalized international aid. I end with a reflection on whether localization as empowerment can be achieved by incorporating the grounded temporality that informs the work of Syrian refugee aid providers into efforts to design an effective Triple Nexus response to protracted conflict.