Canada helps to reconstruct Syria as war enters 6th year
[Children at a camp housing Syrian refugees who fled Hama province on March 22, 2015, in the Lebanese southern city of Sidon. AFP PHOTO/Mahmoud Zayyat]
As Syria’s tragic war begins its sixth year on Tuesday, Canada is taking steps towards the mammoth task of reconstruction and redevelopment in the war-torn country.
Global Affairs Canada has confirmed it has invested $3.2-million in “capacity building,” specifically, infrastructure development and training in areas of Syria that have been deemed safe. The department declined to name the regions to protect the safety of workers.
“Inside Syria where fighting has ceased, it is NGOs, volunteer groups and community associations that are delivering much of the aid that the international community currently pays for,” Michael Callan, Global Affairs Canada’s Director of Development for Middle East & North Africa, said in an interview at the Canadian embassy in Amman, Jordan.
He explained that it’s often small Syrian private businesses that are contracted to deliver aid. A small company, for example, might be paid to dig and set up wells and pumps, clear rubble or fix a series of roads and rebuild schools. Because many of these companies or NGOs have limited project-management skills, he said, they might be trained in project monitoring, evaluation, financial management and even report writing as part of the process. This is to ensure Canadian funds are being dispersed effectively.
“We are making the case that this will help people stay inside Syria where they want to be. It will give them the skills to rebuild the country and contribute to reconstruction,” Callan said.
Since the war began on March 15, 2011, there has been an increasing number of people in need. It’s now in the millions — more than 6.6 million displaced living in wretched conditions inside Syria. Another five million Syrians have fled to Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq; close to a million have applied for asylum in Europe.
Today, estimates of the number of Syrians killed range from 270,000 (United Nations) to 470,000 (the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, an independent think-tank) and more than one million wounded.
The Canadian organization leading that “capacity building” of clearing rubble, rebuilding schools and training preferred not to be named at this stage, Callan said. However, he confirmed that a second organization, the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) is also working inside Syria.
The AKFC has launched a project in the war-torn country that will help 150,000 Syrians by giving them access to clean water and health clinics; primary education; and mental health support for children and families. There’s also a package for farmers to get them started on food production, and there’s a plan for garbage removal.
“Ultimately, Canada’s contribution is going to assist both Canada and international partners in vetting and choosing appropriate and effective partners to deliver support to those in need in Syria,” Callan said.
A report released earlier this month by World Vision and consultants Frontier Economics estimated that the crisis has cost Syria US$275-billion in lost growth.
“That’s almost 100 times the amount required to meet refugee needs across the region,” said Frances Charles, advocacy director for World Vision’s Syria Response, in Amman.
If the conflict continues to 2020, that figure could balloon to an estimated $1.3-trillion. Syria’s infrastructure is demolished; electricity, water, sewage, schools, almost all of it will need to be rebuilt.
Aaron Moore, programs manager with World Vision International in the Kurdish Region of Iraq, said NGOs face challenges while working on infrastructure projects in Syria remotely, i.e., they are based in one country and the local partners are in another.
In some instances, organizations that are ethnically or politically focused, he said, might divert aid to their own group. “If, for example, you give health supplies to an explicitly political or ethnic charity you can be 100 per cent sure that supporters of that political party will get that benefit,” he said, and it may not reach some people who are ill or wounded.
NGOs carefully screen potential partners. In the partner vetting system, an individual’s personal data (and that of members of the board of directors) is run through an international database, Moore said, which contains information from commercial, public and government databases. The screening is designed to ensure vetted subcontractors are not associated with terrorism or corruption.
Still, it’s important for NGO workers to teach their local partners-in-the-field the value of a ranking system: “If you have 200 items and 1,000 people [in a camp] you have to go through your beneficiary selection and pick whose need is greatest. Widows or those with small children, those families would be selected first,” Moore said.
If selecting the neediest in your community sounds like a difficult job, imagine being tasked with rebuilding in the midst of war. When possible, local NGOs and UN organizations work on maintaining infrastructure but they don’t rebuild until there is a more lasting ceasefire or peace, said Cicely McWilliam, director of policy and government relations at Save the Children Canada.
Her organization, for instance, is working to keep schools in Syria structurally sound and open, when safe to do so. It is also providing emergency humanitarian assistance there but she could not state where out of concern for staff safety. And it has Global Affairs Canada-funded projects in neighbouring countries where there has been an influx of Syrian refugees.
The road ahead is long. She predicted years, perhaps decades of reconstruction of schools, hospitals, water and sanitation systems. In addition, there’s the danger from tons of unexploded bombs and IEDs that threatens infrastructure and communities, particularly children.
“Bombs are still being uncovered in London almost 70 years after the Blitz,” McWilliam said, adding, “The Syria crisis won’t be over when the last bomb drops.”