Since March 2015, the US-based Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN) and Turkish NGO Refugee Rights Turkey (RRT) have been engaged in a comprehensive partnership with a primary goal of improving legal protection of refugees in Turkey, the country that currently hosts the largest population of refugees in the world. The now seven-year partnership between RSN and RRT has demonstrably strengthened the availability of reliable legal information and specialized legal assistance services for refugees in Turkey and has built and strengthened capacities within Turkey’s legal professional community. In addition to delivering vital protection benefits for refugees and reinforcing the capacities of legal professionals in providing services to this population, the partnership has also generated significant organizational development for RRT, an independent Turkish civil society organization that exemplifies a successful, sustainable and localized response to meeting protection needs arising from forced displacement. 

This report first takes stock of what achievements have been made possible throughout seven years of strategically-driven partnership engagement between RSN and RRT by analyzing both quantitative and qualitative metrics of joint RSN-RRT activities, demonstrating the impact of these interventions on their intended beneficiaries. The report also provides an assessment of the impact of this partnership on RRT’s overall organizational capacity as a leading national legal protection actor. To that end, the report provides a detailed overview of the ways in which this cooperation has been put into action and of the roles assumed by RSN and RRT, as INGO and local NGO partners respectively. By examining the outputs and modalities of cooperation which have been achieved over the past seven years, this Impact Assessment demonstrates how the RSN-RRT partnership goes beyond prevailing working arrangements between INGOs and NGOs, instead proposing an alternative approach to INGO-National NGO partnerships which is based on equitable, sustained and principled engagement.