Accountability to affected people & people-centred response
The perspectives of women, men, boys, and girls impacted by the evolving situation in Syria are crucial for guiding the humanitarian response. In 2023, assessments helped identify the needs and challenges of affected individuals, allowing humanitarian partners to deliver a more informed approach to aid delivery. The accountability to affected people (AAP) inter-agency coordination groups supporting the response will adopt a standard collective approach for planning and response, focusing on amplifying the voices of affected people, needs-based programming, and collaboration with other working groups and clusters to facilitate effective mainstreaming of AAP commitments.
Priorities for 2025 include addressing gaps identified through inclusive complaints and feedback mechanisms (CFMs) and sectoral assessments, advocating for the scale-up of a collective, inclusive CFM with appropriate referrals, ensuring response leadership AAP commitments and enhancing collaboration with civil society and local stakeholders. The AAP inter-agency coordination groups will also focus on improving communication and feedback mechanisms for underrepresented groups (e.g., the elderly, PWD) and promoting face-to-face interactions as a key element of anticipatory AAP. Additional resources will be required to scale up and adopt existing good practices on people-centred approaches across all governorates in Syria.
Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse
Since it was established in 2017, the WoS inter-agency protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) programme has been supporting the humanitarian response to fulfil its commitments and mitigate the risks of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) posed by the complex and protracted humanitarian emergency in Syria. The risk of SEA remains high for women and girls in Syria and is likely to increase as the humanitarian response scales up with a surge of humanitarian aid workers. Continued hostilities will also exacerbate the already existing needs for humanitarian assistance and limit access to formal and informal reporting mechanisms and survivor assistance. Similarly, the risk of SEA is high in the context of returns from outside or within Syria when individuals are trying to re-establish their lives in areas where they may no longer have any support networks or resources.
For these reasons, PSEA remains a high priority for the humanitarian community, and it seeks to build on existing efforts across the Syrian response to develop a strategy to guide future inter-agency PSEA coordination and activities in close collaboration with the collective approaches and mechanisms on AAP in Syria. The existing PSEA networks will closely coordinate to work towards a unified approach in line with international guidance and commitments while remaining flexible to new realities and changes in operational space on the ground. Efforts will be made to jointly develop and adapt tools, awareness and training material for partners and work on strengthening and extending reporting systems to be used countrywide.
Gender
The multi-dimensional crisis facing Syrians, in which conflict-related, human rights, economic, social and natural factors co-exist, disproportionately affects women and girls and limits the enjoyment of their basic human rights. They face heightened health risks, risks of violence, psychosocial distress and the need to resort to negative coping strategies, while facing reductions to their access to services, schools and job opportunities.
Women and girls are less likely to safely access humanitarian assistance compared to men and boys, and this is further exacerbated for those living with interlinked vulnerabilities (e.g., age, ability, marital and displacement status). Women, particularly mothers, often face difficulties in decision-making regarding their own lives and health and that of their children. Empowering women to participate in these decisions is essential to improving individual and community life and health outcomes. Female-headed households also often face greater economic vulnerability, which leads to a higher percentage of female-headed households being unable to afford costs of education, health services, nutrition and non-food items.
In 2025, the humanitarian response will ensure the voices, experiences, priorities, participation and leadership of Syrian women and girls are at the forefront of advocacy and the humanitarian response. The distinct needs of women and adolescent girls will be prioritized, in particular shelter, health, protection and menstrual hygiene management, based on an intersectional gender analysis. This will involve targeted efforts to overcome barriers such as restrictive cultural norms, financial constraints, and limited mobility. The humanitarian community will strive to identify and support women’s organisations to fully participate and, where possible lead, humanitarian response and its decision-making processes. Engagements with different stakeholders will also promote due respect to women’s rights, protection and participation.
Disability
Persons living with disabilities in Syria encounter numerous societal barriers, both attitudinal and environmental, which hinder their access to opportunities and services, and which are compounded by the intersectionality of disabilities with other factors like gender and age. An estimated 17 per cent of the Syrian population lives with a disability. Humanitarian actors and stakeholders are responsible for ensuring that their response is inclusive of PWD.