About Diakonia IHL Programme

Who we are

Below you will find a short introduction to the work of Diakonia, our regional office in the Middle East, and our International Humanitarian Law Programme.

What is Diakonia?

Diakonia is an international development organization composed of a global network of people, organisations and churches working towards more people living a life in dignity. The organisation was founded in Sweden in 1966. Commonly, Diakonia does not carry out any projects of its own, but supports local partners. We support 400 partner organisations in about 30 countries.

Diakonia's goal is a democratic world in which living standards for the most vulnerable people are improved, and human rights and equality are respected.

To our general website with more information about Diakonia

Middle East regional office

The regional office in Jerusalem manages Diakonia’s development work in Lebanon, northern Iraq (the Kurdish area), Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Egypt. In the office in Jerusalem there are some 20 employees of different nationalities. There are also country offices in Cairo (Egypt) and Beirut (Lebanon).

Diakonia’s work is carried out by local partners. We implement projects ourselves only in a few cases. The local partners are the most efficient to carry out the projects as they are present locally and know the culture and the language.

Diakonia has been supporting development in the Middle East since the end of the 60’s. In 1989 the regional office was established in East Jerusalem.

Our focus

As all work of Diakonia, the projects in the Middle East aim at promoting democratization, human rights, gender equality, economic justice and conflict transformation and peace.

There is also a focus on special areas of work in order to have a greater impact and be able to do networking in the region. The areas focused on in the Middle East are children at risk, gender equality and disability.

International Humanitarian Law Programme

Diakonia’s IHL programme aims at increasing respect for and further implement international humanitarian law in Israel/Palestine, as a means to improve the humanitarian situation, and create a possibility for peace in the region. Lack of knowledge and lack of political will are usually the main reasons for not respecting international humanitarian law. Through this programme, funded by Sida, the Swedish International Development Agency, Diakonia addresses the issue of lack of knowledge and awareness to IHL.