Background
There is a long history of actors from across the so-called Global South responding to conflict and displacement situations, including responses developed by states, civil society networks and refugees themselves. In spite of the continued common usage of terms such as ‘the international system’ and ‘the international humanitarian community’, as if describing fixed and internally coherent frames of reference, it is increasingly recognised that a plurality of actors (often referred to as ‘non-traditional’ or ‘Southern’ responders), ‘systems’, and ‘international communities of response’, exist and play important roles in responding to conflict and humanitarian situations globally. This report, and the academic work it both draws upon and contributes to, takes as its starting point the plurality of ‘communities of response’ to conflict and displacement. In so doing, it seeks to provide a space to critically examine the evolving landscape of and potential for South-South collaborations in diplomatic and humanitarian responses to current and evolving conflict and displacement situations in the Middle East and further afield.
On 26 February 2025, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Professor of Migration and Refugees Studies and Principal Investigator of the Southern Responses to Displacement project, University College London) and Dr. Ghassan Elkahlout (Director of the Doha Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies) coconvened a workshop on this topic, in which representatives from major UN agencies and INGOs, alongside experts on conflict mediation, humanitarianism and responses to displacement, came together to collectively examine the challenges and opportunities of collaboration in diplomatic and humanitarian responses to conflict and displacement. It did so with a particular focus on responses to displacement in and from Syria, Gaza and Lebanon.
The workshop built upon the Convenors’ long-standing research endeavours which have traced the roles that Southern states (variously labelled as ‘non-traditional’, ‘Southern’ and/or ‘postcolonial’) and non-state actors (including transnational faith networks, diaspora organisations and refugees themselves) have been playing in responding to conflict and displacement. Inter alia, the convenors’ respective research endeavours have sought to examine how, why and with what effect differently positioned actors have been responding to displacement.
Two recent research projects led by Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Refugee Hosts, and Southern Responses to Displacement) have undertaken a total of c. 1,000 interviews in Lebanon, Jordan and Türkiye with refugees from Syria, members of host communities, local and international responders and other elite stakeholders, seeking to better understand different models and principles of local and Southern responses, and, in particular, how refugees and hosts themselves experience and perceive ‘local community responses’ as well as ‘Southern’ and ‘Northern’ responses to displacement.
Complementing this focus on refugees and hosts’ own perceptions of local, Southern and Northernled humanitarian responses, the Convenors’ respective research projects have also analysed the relationship between ‘non-traditional’ actors themselves as well as their relationships with ‘Northern’ actors. Such research has suggested the potential for South-South or horizontal forms of collaboration, including on intra- and inter-regional levels: for instance, Dr. Ghassan Elkahlout and Dr. Sansom Milton have pointed to the potential of intra-regional cooperation across the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)6; and Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh has examined transregional cooperation between different states of South America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East.
Building upon the Convenors’ respective research agendas, this closed workshop (following Chatham House rules) centralised the Guest Participants’ expert contributions to maintain a critical focus on mapping past and present examples of states’ diplomatic and humanitarian responses in conflict and displacement spaces (including states from areas often categorised as ‘the global South’), and to examine the challenges and opportunities of such responses in the past, present and future. To this end, the workshop was structured in three sessions:
1. Categories, Labels and Definitions: Understanding Southern and non-traditional responses
2. North-South and South-South Relations: Complementary or contradictory?
3. Barriers and Opportunities for South-South or Horizontal Cooperation
This report draws together key thematic insights arising from the Workshop, concluding with recommendations for next steps.
To cite this report, use the following reference:
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2025). South-South Cooperation: Diplomatic and Humanitarian Responses to Conflict and Displacement [Report]. Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS).