RELIEF: Refugees, Education, Learning, Information Technology, and Entrepreneurship for the Future

The RELIEF Centre will research pathways to achieving inclusive growth in the context of mass displacement and movement of people around the world. Achieving inclusive growth involves looking beyond monetary indicators and GDP, and towards multidimensional notions of prosperity that reflect people's quality of life and well-being. There is growing evidence that inequality is harmful to individuals and societies, and that both social and economic inclusion contribute to sustainable gains in prosperity. Prosperity is consistently eroded by poor educational opportunities, poor health, poor social cohesion, and poor employment prospects. But what does it take to achieve inclusive growth of prosperity in today's world, where 63.5 million people are forcibly displaced according to the UNHCR? Given the magnitude of displacement across the globe, it is no longer enough to see movement as an anomaly. The geopolitics of war, climate change and social inequality mean that this is now the 'new normal' for people, whether they are 'hosts' or 'movers'. In response to this, the RELIEF Centre will mount an interdisciplinary social science project that will speed up the globally critical sustainability transitions required to improve the quality of people's lives. The core will be a programme of research, education and civic engagement that develops a vision of future prosperity for Lebanon - the country with the largest number of refugees per capita in the world today - but with findings and outputs that will be applicable to other countries throughout the world. The Centre's research programme comprises the following four research themes (R1 to R4), addressing key aspects of inclusive growth for prosperity and social cohesion: R1 Post Conflict Cities will examine how Syrian refugees and their host Lebanese communities that can collectively participate in the design of more resilient and better quality living environments in contexts of resource constraint in Lebanon. This theme will also explore mechanisms for public engagement in the reconstruction of cities in Syria if/when Syrian refugees decide to return. R2 Creating Value will identify existing collective goods for communities (of both hosts and refugees) in Lebanon, as well as the most efficacious forms of investment in communities to address their needs. This strand will consequently develop a model to assess the value of successful community-driven projects for enhancing and delivering collective goods in terms of both job creation and well-being. R3 Future Education will mobilise new technologies to deliver affordable education to refugees and hosts in Lebanon, as well as generate data for the three other research themes. The RELIEF Centre will develop a curriculum of massive open online courses (MOOCs) aiming to provide people with the skills and capacities for managing conflict, improving environments and well-being, and creating opportunities for flourishing. MOOCs will include surveys at the outset, and at regular intervals throughout the course, on the specific needs of refugees and hosts. This data will then be used to improve them, as well as help address the other themes' objectives. R4 Prosperity Gains and Inclusive Growth will examine what prosperity and inclusive means for refugees and hosts, how they view their prospects for a better life, and their role in making gains in prosperity. R4 will produce a conceptual framework and methodology for understanding what drives prosperity gains, as well as develop mechanisms and methods for refugees and hosts to monitor prosperity gains or deficits in their communities and cities.