Message from the Resident Representative, Ramla Khalidi
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In March, we celebrated International Women’s Day in recognition of the cultural, political, and socio-economic achievements of women. Syrian women have shouldered a disproportionate burden of the crisis in the country. During my time in Syria, I have witnessed the courage, strength, and resilience of the hundreds of women that I have met, across all walks of life, who despite the odds, are seeking to sow hope for themselves and future generations. In this edition of our quarterly newsletter, we are happy to feature the important role of women in building a better and more sustainable future for Syria, highlighting UNDP Syria programmes that promote gender equality, raise awareness, and empower women to be part of the solution. Through a wide range of our interventions, we have sought to ensure women are not only the target of our programmes, but that they are active agents of change in defining priorities and advocating for an improvement for themselves and their communities.
Because change starts at home, we, at UNDP Syria, are proud of our women’s group. By holding regular informal gatherings, women working in UNDP Syria have a safe space to empower and support each other, challenge gender norms, benefit from diverse experiences and backgrounds, break stereotypes, and celebrate diversity. This experience was extended to all staff on the international women’s day as we celebrated the resilience and perseverance of our staff who continue to inspire others in their communities and beyond.
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In the first quarter of 2022, UNDP Syria continued to implement its resilience-building programming. UNDP has launched an integrated area-based approach (IABA) to ensure more positive impacts on local communities in the targeted areas. Also, UNDP is continuing to implement context-specific interventions that emphasize community engagement and address the location-specific needs of Syrians. UNDP is supporting people in need to rebuild their lives and reduce negative coping mechanisms as well as dependence on humanitarian relief.
UNDP achieves this by:
Enhancing people’s employability through creating jobs, providing skills and vocational training, and reviving disrupted small local businesses.
- Supporting rural livelihoods to increase agricultural production and enhance food security for local communities.
- Ensuring clean and healthy environments through the safe removal of debris and solid waste.
- Supporting improved access to critical basic services, including education, health, water and electricity, through the light rehabilitation of damaged schools, community health centres, water and electricity networks and power stations, as well as introducing renewable energy solutions.
- Engaging local communities in dialogue and promoting social cohesion, through targeted participatory workshops and social activities including arts, culture and sports.
- Supporting green recovery to facilitate and promote green solutions to leverage sustainable recovery through business-driven initiatives that is gender aware and sensitive.
- As cross-cutting interventions, UNDP ensures that a context sensitive human rights-based approach informs its programme and seeks to mainstream gender equality, empower women and youth, and include persons with disabilities across its programme.
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In response to the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, UNDP Syria prioritizes supporting vulnerable populations by enhancing their access to local health services, livelihoods support and women’s access to employment and finance. To this end, the following interventions have been implemented to enhance people’s resilience to the pandemic:
- UNDP has supported the light rehabilitation of Al-Zakieh health centre in Rural Damascus Governorate. The centre has been supported with a solar energy system to ensure continuous operation and service provision to people living in the area and its surroundings. The centre is fully operational now and is ready to extend free and quality health services to more than 35,000 people per year, mainly women and children. The health services include vaccination, primary first aid, nutrition, gynaecology, and laboratory services. The vaccination unit in the centre is providing vaccination services to children in addition to operating as a Covid-19 vaccination centre where people are receiving Covid-19 vaccines to protect them from the deadly disease.
- To support women throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, UNDP has set up the first women’s business accelerator in Aleppo Governorate. The centre aims to alleviate the negative socio-economic impact of the pandemic on women by enabling them to explore new business activities beyond traditional gender roles. 98 women have benefited so far from training on entrepreneurship skills, technical and legal support and increased access to finance. At the end of the training, 40 out of the 98 women will receive business incubation/acceleration services to enable them to set up their own businesses as entrepreneurs.
- To build resilience and improve food security of the most vulnerable people in rural areas, UNDP in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has supported the rural livelihoods of 659 farmers including 406 female farmers whose farming activities have been disrupted due to the pandemic and the on-going Syrian crisis. UNDP’s support comprised providing essential agricultural inputs and farming tools as well as livestock and animal feed to the most-affected rural communities in Homs, Lattakia and Tartous governorates.
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With the generous support from the European Union, UNDP builds the capacity of law school students as facilitators to help address legal challenges faced by many segments of society. These challenges are often resulting from the lack or loss of basic identification papers, or the failure to register births, deaths, and marriage in addition to other legal problems related to inheritance, specifically for women. Such legal issues pose a real challenge to stability, security, and social cohesion within communities, especially for the most vulnerable groups, such as displaced persons, women, and children.
In addition, UNDP is part of the UN Joint Programme on Urban and Rural Resilience in Syria (the JP) funded by the European Union and Norway. The JP aims to strengthen the resilience of communities by translating the idea of a multi-sectoral, integrated area-based approach into action towards greater impact and efficiency. Under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator, UNDP with other participating UN agencies – FAO, UNFPA, UN Habitat, UNICEF, and WFP provided over 5,000 students, especially girls, with safer access and connectivity to schools and public gardens, including the installation of nearly 140 solar street lighting poles and street and sidewalk rehabilitation. Moreover, UNDP contributed to the JP’s key achievements including 1) creation of about 960 temporary job opportunities through removal of 10,000 m3 of solid waste and debris, also meaningfully contributing to mitigating environmental and public health risks, 2) provision of critical support to reviving about 100 local businesses/Micro small and medium enterprises, 3) support for capacity building of over 3,000 youth, mainly women, to enhance livelihood opportunities and employability, 4) provision of capacity building and training for 270 local community representatives to ensure that urban area-based recovery and neighbourhoods plans are developed and responsive to community needs and 5) improvement of the livelihoods of nearly 18,000 farmers and livestock keepers through rehabilitation of irrigation network and canals, as well as Green Belt wells. |
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“I dropped out of school in the sixth grade. When I first joined the women’s network, I met many educated women and I felt ashamed of myself. After the many sessions, I’m now more confident and I appreciate my life experiences and skills. I’m now well aware of my rights and how to claim them, and with the support and encouragement from my colleagues, I’m now determined to complete my education” said Batoul, 41.
Batoul is one of more than 280 women who joined UNDP Women on Action Network, where they are provided with safe spaces to openly express themselves without fear of judgment or intimidation. These spaces also provide easy access to legal, mental and health support and build the women’s support networks.
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More than a decade of crisis has damaged or destroyed Syria’s critical civilian infrastructure and services including electricity, water supply, schools, and healthcare facilities. Electricity cuts are now part of everyday life in Syria and 30 percent of the population have power for just two hours per day -- sometimes, even less.
In a heavily populated town in Rural Damascus, known to host thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), UNDP Syria adopted a community-based gender transformative approach, to help women break gender stereotypes that link science to masculinity, and to overcome challenges they are facing in obtaining jobs. In a close partnership with a local women network, UNDP identified the most vulnerable and capable women from both host and IDPs communities to take part in its “women and renewable energy” project, which aims at both improving livelihoods for women and their communities, as well as creating a safe environment for women to discuss the challenges they face due to gender stereotypes, and their impact on women’s career progressions.
“I missed many opportunities in the past because of the stigma around my participation in masculine jobs.” said Hiba, 27. “It is time to challenge this idea. I have the right as a woman to choose the field of work I find appropriate, especially in these difficult circumstances in which we live.”
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How does UNDP Syria support young innovators to turn their ideas into digital solutions that help make the world a better place? Start-up Marathon winners received training, mentoring, and financing to actualize their ideas and turn them into reality...Congrats to the winners!
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Syria’s World Heritage sites such as Palmyra and Aleppo have been a source of pride for all Syrians. Between 2015 and 2017, the world cultural heritage site of Palmyra was badly destroyed by the ISIS. In March 2016, many damaged ancient artefacts and sculptures housed within the Palmyra Museum were evacuated to the National Museum of Damascus. Many of them were shattered to pieces. The restoration of the damaged objects became an urgent priority for Syrian archaeologists. Through a close partnership between UNDP Syria and the Archaeological Institute of Kashihara in Japan, Syrian archaeologists are now able to diagnose the state of conservation and ensure prevention, maintenance, and restoration of artefacts. More than 100 damaged Palmyrene sculptures have been restored. Moreover, the National Museum of Damascus and the National Museum of Aleppo were reopened to the public once again as testimony to Syria’s history as a cradle of civilization.
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UNDP adopts innovative solutions to support youth in Syria by promoting and strengthening their engagement in rebuilding and leading their communities towards sustainable change. Watch video and learn more about the seventh edition of the Young Leaders Program in Syria.
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With the unemployment rate in Syria estimated at close to 50 percent, the Covid-19 pandemic heavily impacted employment opportunities especially for youth across Syria. Learn more about how UNDP uses innovation and technology to support jobseekers with a click of a button through the first virtual career fair in Aleppo, where more than 200 companies and 1,000 job opportunities were made available.
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Making a Difference: the EU-UNDP Partnership in the Arab States region showcases the results of an integral partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), whose work across the Arab States region spans 13 countries and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report focuses on achievements from 2015 to 2020, highlighting successes on human development, good governance, rule of law, promotion of justice and democratic institutions. It illustrates how, through its partnership, UNDP and the EU work hand-in-hand to build more resilient, prosperous, and inclusive societies in this unique region of the world.
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On 31 January 2022, the Government of Japan and the Regional Bureau for Arab States of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement worth approximately US$ 8.6 million to support early recovery and resilience work in Syria by strengthening livelihood opportunities and enhancing food security and agricultural productivity in Ar-Raqqa and Deir-ez-Zour governorates in the northeast of the country.
"The crisis has severely impacted people’s ability to sustain a living, and to access basic social services and infrastructure; it has also further undermined social cohesion. Most people in Ar-Raqqa and Deir-ez-Zour are heavily dependent on farming, and it is critical to scale up interventions in the agricultural sector. We thank the Government of Japan for partnering with UNDP to restore the livelihoods of the most vulnerable in those areas,” said Ramla Khalidi, Resident Representative of UNDP Syria.
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