Response
In August 2019, 11 Protection Cluster members provided emergency response services for civilians recently displaced from Northern Hama and Southern Idleb due to the ongoing hostilities. Cluster members provided 14,737 protection services to IDPs and affected host community members in 29 communities within 13 sub-districts in Idleb and Aleppo reaching individuals (2,405 girls, 1,340 boys, 1,897 women, and 2,137 men). Cluster members also provided specialized child protection and GBV services, provided safety and prevention messages to communities specifically on family separation, and referred individuals to other services.
GBV SC organized training of 9 protection and GBV actors that subsequently conducted 44 FGDs, equally distributed among women, adolescent girls, men and adolescent boys, in 11 sub-districts in the framework of 2020 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO). The GBV SC also participated in the strategic and technical review of 3 integrated protection/GBV/CP/MA projects and 1 GBV project during the Syria cross-border Humanitarian Fund reserve allocation, for a total of around $2M. The GBV SC Capacity Building Taskforce members organized 2 five-day-trainings on the GBV SC Awareness Raising Toolkit; one was held in Afrin with 16 participants from 8 GBV organizations operating in Euphrates Shield Area and the other training was in Dana with 21 participants from 10 organizations operating in Idleb. The GBV SC also organized one learning session in Gaziantep on how to improve the use of cash assistance in GBV case management, based on the guidance note that the GBV SC has recently developed.
CPSC members, more specifically 31 organisations, were able to implement 31,000 Child Protection interventions in 18 subdistricts in Aleppo and 124 communities in Idleb across North-West Syria. Additionally, partners were able to reach 17,206 community members in awareness-raising as efforts to prevent and respond to child protection issues. These included family separations and violence against children amongst others. Structured, sustained child protection programmes including psychosocial support, reached 5,951 girls and 5,010 boys. Children s psychosocial wellbeing continues to be of high concern in North West with increasing numbers of children presenting signs of psychosocial distress including an increase in aggressive behaviour. With this intervention, it is expected that girls and boys coping mechanisms and resilience are strengthened. One thousand five hundred eighty-seven parents and caregivers (1,048 women and 539 men) were engaged in parenting programmes along this reporting period. Similarly, Parenting Programmes have strengthened parents and primary caregivers’ skills and resources to care and protect their children under severely overstretched communities’ capacities. Additionally, specialized services continued through case management and reached 283 girls and 341 boys. Case Management plays a central role in facilitating individual child protection assessments, monitoring of cases and referral. Multiple displacements along August, attacks on critical civilian infrastructure have continued to hinder partner’s capacity to deliver interventions that require follow up, monitoring and overall continuity like case management. The CP SC members continued to engage and train child protection teams and communities both females and males at different levels on basics of child protection in line with the Child Protection Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Action. Building on earlier efforts, in August 2019 350 women and men across different communities in Northwest Syria were trained. In this reporting period, there have been trainings towards strengthening partner’s capacity to report (not verify) children's violation to MRM in North-West Syria, maximizing the same child protection monitoring mechanism already in place for partners and this training conducted for 3 organizations who are part of the CPMWG as a pilot. Additionally, the CPSC works on consultation with the members to prioritize the Task forces topics that we need to focus on, and the result came to focus on both case management and youth& adolescents task force and child protection monitoring working group.
Gap
The emergency in NWS has affected the provision of services for survivors and left many women and girls with no access to services due to facilities having to close down as of result of insecurity and lack of funding. Other concerns such as overcrowding and lack of space in Northern Idlib emanating from the recent displacement has led to serious protection and privacy concerns for women and girls and increased early marriage. While improvements have been made in mitigating the risk of GBV by various sectors and throughout the response, much more needs to be done.As the conflict tempo is increasing in areas of NWS, concerns of influxes of displacements re-surfaced, and while CP partners are ready to provide PFA, PSS and emergency case management services, there is a need to step up partners’ capacity to provide interim care in emergencies and early response for children with disabilities. Gradual increase and intensity of strikes and ground military operations in North-West Syria along the reporting period continue to significantly impact children s psychosocial wellbeing with reportedly high levels of trauma. Multiple displacements continue to further strain already stretched the protection capacities of families. In their turn, protection teams work is hindered as protection interventions require continued access, predictability and continuity which is hard to ensure in populations on the move, except for many organizations report the suspension of their activities in the clashes area like Ehsem and Maart Nouman and losing the accessibility to other areas like Khan Shikhoun.