MALAYSIAN HUMANITARIAN NGOs’ INVOLVEMENT IN SYRIAN REFUGEES PROJECTS: CURRENT STATE OF COOPERATION INITIATIVES

Abstract

Cooperation forms a strong pillar in current development partnership policy. However, the current commitments to some cooperation initiatives are more tokenistic in nature. This study explores the current states of cooperation initiatives among humanitarian NGOs in Malaysia and to uncover the factors influencing cooperation initiatives while conducting Syrian refugees’ projects. This study adopts qualitative design using standardized open-ended interviews with 10 key informants from humanitarian NGOs in Malaysia, specifically located in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor states. Majority of the key informants perceives that the current state of cooperation initiatives to be at average level because cooperation does exist in some of short-term projects, but not in the long sustainable projects. Contrary, several others mentioned that lacks of coordination, different interest of different NGOs, gaps of understanding between well-established and newly-established NGOs, as well as generation gap among NGOs’ workers are the reasons of why cooperation initiatives did not achieve satisfactory states. The results support the Theory of Collaborative Advantage that humanitarian NGOs’ cooperation is influenced by sharing resources, security and safety, as well as marketing hook. Further, the existence of political orientation effects is able to increase the capacity of the NGOs to maximize its ability to attract donors in contributing donation for Syrian crisis. Perhaps, the Malaysian NGOs players were encouraged to re-focus their direction towards humanity, practice humility and confidence, design plans and strategies, established NGOs union, as well as a specialised platform as part of efforts to stimulate cooperative initiatives among the humanitarian NGOs in Malaysia.