Syria

Rapid WASH Assessment: Key Findings IDP sites in North West Syria

Between March 17th and 21st, CARE conducted a Rapid WASH assessment across 78 IDP sites in Idlib and Aleppo Governorate, together with partners IYD, Shafak and Syria Relief.
The displacement of close to one million people since December 2019 has resulted in a very high number of IDP-sites being setup by families on the move. These sites are not planned and many of them do not have the most basic services or infrastructure available. Other sites have grown significantly as new arrivals have settled next to existing camp-like facilities. Increasingly, reports from the areas have highlighted massive gaps in WASH services across these sites and particularly the lack of safe WASH facilities has been reported as a protection concern for girls and women. Simultaneously, the global COVID-19 outbreak has increased the urgency for gaps in WASH services to be addressed. The lack of access to clean water, handwashing facilities and soap undermines any initiative to prevent large scale outbreaks in North West Syria.
CARE, with its partners, therefore conducted a Rapid WASH Assessment across IDP-sites focusing mainly on two basic aspects: availability/usage/status of latrines and availability/usage of clean water, handwashing facilities and soap.
The assessment highlights that:
 Adequate access to sanitation facilities is available in only 10% of the assessed locations. 45% of sites do not have any latrines. For the 55% of sites with latrines, average is 240 individuals per latrine.
 The assessed IDP sites are critically lacking access to clean water, handwashing facilities and soap. Only 37% of the sites have sufficient and regular access to water supplies. As many as 83% of the sites have no access to handwashing facilities. A catastrophic 91% does not have access to soap.
 Very limited, if any, WASH support has reached the assessed locations. Only 44% of the sites report having received any WASH NFI’s in the past two months. Read More...

COVID 19 Rapid Gender Analysis Middle East and North Africa Region

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been wreaking havoc on the international community in recent weeks and months, leaving almost no corner untouched. As of 8th April 2020, 1,464,852 cases and 85,397 deaths have been recorded in 212 countries1, including all countries in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region with the exception of Yemen. MENA is at a critical stage in containing the pandemic. Some countries have been successful in curtailing the spread by utilizing stringent lockdown measures, while other more fragile and conflict-affected countries, that are less equipped for additional crises, are only beginning to face the inevitable spread of the virus, with incredibly diminished health infrastructures. Widespread conflict, displacement, and migration in the region significantly complicates a controlled response to COVID-19, and extreme water scarcity makes
preventative measures even more challenging.
Women and girls in MENA faced numerous barriers to education, mobility, financial and asset control, and public leadership prior to the pandemic, and any positive gains made recently are at risk. They are impacted by losses in the informal labor market, elevated levels of violence and harassment, and increased burdens of caregiving for out-of-school children, sick and elderly family members.
Levels of psychosocial distress, already high in a volatile region are only escalating, with reductions in men’s roles as providers
being felt in a context of strict gender roles and stigmatization. The potential shift in men’s and boys’ role to provide increased
caregiving should be explored in contextually-appropriate manners. Read More...

Rapid Gender and Protection Assessment Report – Kobane Refugee Population, Suruc, Turkey

It is with a sense of optimism that we write this protection and gender report. With every day that the Syria crisis continues, it becomes more and more apparent that we can no longer work in siloes if the international community is going to be able to respond appropriately to the vast array of protection concerns we are facing in the region.

We write this report and subsequent recommendations:

(1) to help support the work of multiple agencies in strengthening their response, and providing services in ways which respect the different needs of women, men, boys and girls;
(2) to provide agencies with enough information to avoid doing harm;
(3) to ensure that actors are able to mitigate risk of SGBV and other protection concerns immediately. Read More...

Rapid Gender Analysis North West Syria (Idleb and Aleppo)

This Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) focused on gendered work practices and attitudes, access to services, protection and coping mechanisms. Past research indicated that the role of women has been further marginalised during the protracted conflict and there was gap in information around gender dynamics, trends, roles and responsibilities and power dynamics in Idleb. Understanding these trends and patterns helps to inform program activities and procedures, including how to better target women and girls in ways that are safe, equitable, and empowering within the local context. Information about effective male engagement is also required to understand what actions and processes are useful to help reinforce the work of supporting women, elderly women and men and adolescent women and men during the protracted crisis.
The RGA focused on the Aleppo and Idleb Governorates in North West Syria. The objectives are focused on capturing the approach that has worked in reaching and supporting vulnerable women and men of different ages under the Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH), shelter, rapid response, cash for work / livelihoods and protection sectors; analyse the level, type and extent of changes that have occurred and are taking place as a result of conflict and displacement at household and community levels in relation to gender and power differentials (structure, relations and agency) and the reasons / factors behind those changes,; review the functionality of formal or informal support structures established for Gender Based Violence (GBV) survivors of any age and to develop a set of actionable recommendations, short and medium-term, based on key findings. Read More...

CARE Rapid Gender Analysis Bardarash Camp.

Following the military operation launched by Turkey on October 9th, an estimated number of 180,000 people displaced in Northeast Syria (OCHA, 2019). Around 18,991 of those displaced population1 have crossed into Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and majority of those are settled in Bardarash camp in Duhok governorate which is managed by Barzani Charity Foundation. A smaller group of refugees are also settled in Gawilan camp, located in Duhok governorate. Despite many challenges, multiple organizations operate in the camp to assist people in need and provide support.


In order to understand the different needs, capacities and coping strategies of refugee women, men, boys and girls in KRI camps from northeast Syria, CARE has conducted a Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA). Using a range of primary and secondary information, this RGA is built up progressively and aims at providing practical programming and operational recommendations to meet different needs of women, men, boys and girls and to ensure ‘do-no-harm’ principle. Read More...

Women’s Economic Empowerment through Gender Transformative Approaches – Evidence from CARE’s Experience in Middle East & North Africa

CARE defines women’s economic empowerment (WEE) as the process by which women increase their right to economic resources and the power to make decisions that benefit themselves, their families and their communities. Our Theory of Change (as discussed in CARE’s WEE Strategy Document) outlines three conditions necessary for genuine and sustainable economic empowerment for women: increased capabilities, decision-making power and an enabling environment. An integrated approach across all three conditions is required to achieve genuine and sustainable change. Increasing individual women’s capabilities can lead to temporary increases in their economic opportunities and income. However, women’s economic empowerment can only be achieved through also transforming unequal power relations and discriminatory structures.

This Learning Brief is created to provide practical learning and present existing tools applied by CARE Country Offices (COs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to encourage a more gender transformative approach to WEE and livelihood programming. This is highly relevant for practicioners from the whole sector working on economic empowerment and livelihood porgramming in fragile settings anywhere in the world. This document can aid a better understanding of gender transformative concepts by livelihood staff, as well as better understanding of the principles of sound economic empowerment by gender staff. This Learning Brief contains many practical insights and allows practicioners to understand how theory and frameworks can have an impact on the actual programming and results on the ground. The Hub encourages teams and practicioners to use this Brief, and the different overviews and examples provided, to reflect on their own work on gender integration, and take steps to move beyond gender responsive programming towards a truly transformative approach for our impact groups.

Learning insights incorporated in the document are based on the learning accumulated by CARE MENA Country Offices (COs) in the last five years under our women’s economic empowerment/livelihood programming. It focuses on two main components of WEE gender transformative programming: economic advancement and gender equality, along with approaches related to engaging men and boys. The evidence of these lessons learned is based on: 1) revision of documentation of more than 12 long term and short term WEE/livelihood programs implemented by CARE in Jordan, Syria, Egypt, West Bank & Gaza, Caucasus and the Balkans, 2) interviews with key informants including gender champions from these COs along with other global CARE gender experts who collectively searched for answers to questions in the themes of gender transformative approaches in WEE programming. Read More...

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