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Syria: Emergency Shelter Sector Factsheet July 2016 [EN/AR]

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MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS

In 2015 the shelter response reached 129,645 beneficiaries using various shelter solutions. These included:

  • The upgrading of public and private collective shelters for 66,985 IDPs
  • The distribution of shelter kits and materials for 35,108 individuals
  • Supporting the management and maintenance of shelters which accommodate 12,797 Palestinian refugees
  • 2,860 people covered via owner-oriented shelter support
  • and 11,895 via the establishment and support of Operation and Maintenance units

In 2016, so far the Sector has reached 51 494 individuals using various shelter solutions.

These include:

  • The upgrading of public collective shelters for 22,234 IDPS
  • Supporting the management and maintenance of shelters which accommodate 3517 Palestinian refugees
  • The provision of emergency shelter kits for 21,192 people

KEY FIGURES

  • An estimated 13.5 million people in Syria, including six million children, require humanitarian assistance and protection
  • 1.2 million housing units have been damaged and 400,000 completely destroyed
  • 1.7 million IDPs are living in camps and collective centres
  • 2.4 million people lack adequate shelter

Background

The protracted Syrian crisis has affected people's safety, assets and livelihoods and has also had a major impact on the ability of people to cope and adjust to the adverse circumstances of an increasingly weak and dismantled economy. First and foremost, the crisis has caused massive displacement of people across and within the borders of the country whereby a large number of persons experienced multiple displacement patterns. With the continuance of the crisis in Syria, the displacement of large parts of Syria's population has not only affected the situation of those displaced but also of those living in the host communities.

Since the onset of the crisis, it is estimated that more than 1.2 million houses in Syria are partially or severely damaged with 400,000 completely destroyed. In addition, the number of IDPs in Syria is estimated at 6.5 million with only 5% of the displaced living in collective shelters and the majority seeking shelter in rented houses, apartments or with family members. With over a quarter of the Syrian population being displaced since the beginning of the crisis, shelter as a basic form of physical protection is one of the main needs. Through five years of the crisis, shelter response in Syria has been developed collectively within the sector, and has evolved from distribution of shelter material as part of CRI package, to improvements of collective shelters, into upgrading of unfinished private buildings in various stages of completion (private shelter upgrade). For 2016, the sector has increasingly focused on more durable solutions, without compromising on contingency planning and emergency response through tents and kits. More sustainability is foreseen through the support of owners and tenants to rehabilitate their premises to minimal liveable conditions. This approach targets houses with minor damage, in the places of beneficiaries' origin. Besides responding to families' shelter needs, this approach is also intended to address neighbourhoods/communities through assisting in the restoration of main services and utilities making neighbourhoods function again. As per the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan, the shelter sector this year is targeting to reach 320,213 beneficiaries.

Response

The shelter sector response is to enhance existing and potential shelter with the aim to decrease displacement and to ensure that IDPs are able to return to their homes and enjoy their rights ac-cording to international standards of H LP law. The response focuses on six core areas of responses:

  • Responding to emergencies, providing life-saving, life-sustaining support.
  • Rehabilitation of public structures as collective shelters.
  • Upgrade of unfinished private buildings.
  • Owner- / tenant oriented shelter assistance to repair their premises.
  • Strengthening awareness of IDP's and host community on Housing Land Propriety Rights through awareness session by legal aid partners.
  • Enforce ongoing capacity building efforts to enhance the governmental response to the IDP crisis.

Gaps & Challenges

At present, the most significant limiting factors for effective shelter response are:

  • Security concerns for humanitarian personnel hindering both a country-wide needs assessment and the delivery of emergency assistance to those who are in need.
  • Suddenness and unpredictability of displacements following tensions and conflict.
  • Implementing partners' capacity, in terms of quantifiable resources, outreach, number of partners, but also in regards of technical, management and monitoring capacity.
  • Complexity of formal requirements and administrative procedures: complex and cumbersome processes to obtain permissions and approvals from several bodies and authorities for each step of the shelter response process sequence impacts scale, scope, timeliness and effectiveness of response.
  • Limited number of NGOs operating in Syria as well as their limited operational capacity. Durable access to planned intervention areas; taking into account that shelter response requires constant and stable access to sites over a longer time-frame, as well as sufficient security conditions for staff and programs. This constraint is much more essential for effectiveness of shelter response than it is for sectors with distribution -oriented humanitarian assistance programs.
  • Reliable identification and verification of specific needs, vulnerabilities and beneficiary groups, and their alignment with suitable, effective response of sufficient scale. This re-quires continued advocacy to carry out targeted and structured assessments, as a joint exercise of all stakeholders involved, especially on field level in identified focal areas.
  • Limited availability of sites and structures for implementation of transitional solutions, resp., for upgrading for temporary use by IDPs.