On February 24th, 2015 the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) in partnership with forum ZFD, Lebanon held the first workshop inscribed in the “Future Together Now” project at its premises in Bodnayel center. 8 community mobilizers from LOST and 4 others from Basma and Zaytona, a copartner in the project attended the one-day workshop, which was delivered by an expert from GIZ.
The “Do No Harm” workshop highlights the significance of identifying local capacities for peace (connectors) and sources of tension (dividers) in any context of conflict when implementing any humanitarian or developmental project. It also sheds light on “ Resource Transfers” and “Implicit Ethical Messages”, the two misconceptions that would increase the tension between service providers and beneficiaries and among the beneficiaries themselves, the Lebanese host and the Syrian refugee in the Lebanese context.
The “Do No Harm” workshop illuminated the idea of causing no harm to any part of the community when implementing a project that benefits another part of the community. In other words, when designing a project the negative and positive effects should be taken into consideration in order to avoid harm.
As a direct outcome of the workshop, LOST officially announced the adoption of the “Do No Harm” concept as a fundamental principle in project design in the future.
