The creation of women and girls safe spaces (WGSS) has emerged as a key strategy for the protection and empowerment of women and girls affected by the Syrian crisis. This document provides an overview of what safe spaces are and what key principles should be followed when establishing such spaces in humanitarian and post-crisis contexts. This guidance is based on the experiences of UNFPA and its partners in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It also refers to experiences documented by the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) coordination mechanisms in Jordan and Lebanon.The key objectives of a safe space are to provide an area where women and girls can socialize and re-build their social networks; acquire contextually relevant skills and access multi-sectorial GBV response services and information on issues relating to women’s rights, health, and services. In the Syrian context, women have become more isolated as a consequence of the crisis but evidence suggests that the establishment of women- and/or girl-only spaces helps to reduce risks and prevent further harm during acute emergency responses.
The humanitarian community often finds itself unprepared for unfolding humanitarian developments or sudden events: the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti and the sudden spread of Islamic State areas of control in 2013 in Syria are just two of the many examples. Scenario building, an analysis of how situations might evolve, is an essential part of humanitarian operations as it informs contingency planning and preparedness measures ahead of possible developments. It can also help to ensure programming is sufficiently robust to withstand changes in the operational environment. During a separate contingency planning exercise, appropriate preparedness measures and detailed response plans are developed, based on the existing and possible future capacity to respond to the identified scenarios.
During scenario building the range of plausible developments, their predicted impact on the people affected, and the related needs are identified. Scenario building covers a range of activities including:o Risk analysis: the identification and impact of a probability of damage,
The purpose of the review was to provide a summary of possible indicators which might be used to measure the performance and quality of healthcare in conflict-affected settings.
There is considerable guidance on measuring access, availability and quantity of health provision in these settings, but much less on whether this care is sufficient or effective. This
review identifies and summarises some indicators which have been used or are suggested as appropriate.
Syria’s shattered health system is forcing health workers to engage in brutal medical practices and a series of epidemics have left millions of children exposed to a plethora of deadly diseases. This report sheds light on a broken health system and its consequences: children not just dying from violent means but from diseases that would previously either have been treatable or prevented.
The extent of the health system collapse in Syria is borne out in many horrific ways, including: Children having limbs amputated because clinics don’t have necessary equipment for appropriate treatment, Newborn babies dying in their incubators during power cuts, Patients being knocked out with metal bars owing to a lack of anaesthesia, Patients undergoing potentially deadly person-to-person blood transfusions.