Assignment # 1: Politics of Policymaking: Comparative Perspectives, Fall 2015
Name: Pragya Dewan | UNI: pd2490
To: Head of UNDG-Syria (all UN agencies)
Re: Moving from an emergency driven humanitarian response to long-term strategic management of the Syrian refugee crisis
From: Dr. Amena Al-Diri, Strategic Advisor to OCHA-Syria
Date: 21st September 2015
Executive Summary
Background and Problem Definition
A combination of factors in Syria, including but not limited to Bashar al-Assad 's regime and its practices against the Sunni majority, the rapid spread of ISIS and its atrocities against the Syrians, and other groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra have led to a civil war that has killed 250,000 people, displaced half of the population,
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The 2014 plan reached out to an unprecedented number of people by way of food assistance (4.43 million people per month), non-food items (5.7 million people), education assistance (3.1 million), and health services (16.5 million medical treatments) and early recovery and livelihoods interventions (2.1 million people benefitted) . However, because of the exponential increase in the scale of the crisis, OCHA and UN partners have only been able to provide a largely response driven emergency assistance. In addition, only a fraction of the assistance is actually reaching the target population as organizations are constrained by slow administrative and bureaucratic procedures, lack of government support, violence along access routes and general safety and security concerns .
As the humanitarian agencies focus on providing for these basic needs, Syria’s development situation has regressed almost by four decades in four years. Since the onset of the crisis in 2011, life expectancy is estimated to have shortened by almost 13 years (Q4, 2013) and school attendance dropped more than 50%. Syria has also seen reversals in all 12 recorded Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators. The Syrian economy has contracted by an estimated 40% since 2011, leading to the majority of Syrians losing their livelihoods. By the end of 2013, an estimated three in four Syrians were living in poverty, and 54% were living in extreme
For many ongoing years now, Syria has been in a war with thousands of fleeing refugees, terrorists that could be attacking at any minute, and the constant involvement of other countries that has done more harm than their planned good. I believe that the foreign involvement of countries such as the US and Russia have fueled more of the ongoing violence in Syria.
“a really, really tough case” that defies historical parallels. Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War refers to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria that began in March 2011, as well as active foreign involvement. Most parties involved in the war in Syria receive various types of support from foreign countries and entities based outside Syria. The ongoing conflict in Syria is widely described as a series of overlapping wars between the regional and world powers, primarily between the U.S. and Russia as well as between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has been in charge since 2000, following on from his late father who ruled for 30 years. Commencing in March of 2011, an anti-regime uprising has since escalated into Civil War where it has been estimated that more than 400,000 have been killed (CNN, 2017). Just this death toll alone proves the danger and inhumane conditions the people of Syria have been living in for over six years. Controlling large areas of Northern and Eastern Syria, Islamic State (IS) have been left battling government forces, rebel brigades and air strikes from
The Syrian war is a multi-problematic situation that started within Syrian borders. The Syrian war began in 2010 with something called the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is a chain of events where people caused aggressive and non-aggressive situations such as protests which created harm in the Middle East. In 2011 people started a non-aggressive protest because children were being abused after spattering graffiti that stated how they agreed with the Arab Spring. The president during this time was Bashar al- Assad. Assad would torment and imprison the people of Syria who protested. The Syrian People wanted to end Assad’s brutal actions so they created a Free Syrian Army which led to a civil war (i.e. the Syrian war). There are several countries
So far, more than 1 out of 10 Syrians have been wounded or killed since the beginning of the war in 2011. “Syria’s civil war has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country's pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been killed or forced to flee their
In Syria there has been massive battles between rebel forces and the governmental forces. The problem is that the rebel forces are split into multiple factions with different agendas. In some cases you have found that rebel forces may even be fighting one another. ISIS has even arose out of this chaos further weakening the rebels chances of overthrowing the government because it splits the agenda into even more smaller fragments. The results of this fragmentation are that Syria is now a shell of its former self. It is in a constant state of war and battle and prospects for the future are not looking
Syria’s civil war is the worst humanitarian crisis of modern time. The “Syrian Civil war Began in March of 2011, between rebel brigades and government force; economy and infrastructure is destroyed” (Library, 2016). “Divisions between secular and religious fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict” (Corps, 2016). Additionally, the Syrian civil war has taken a significant
In recent years the conflict has turned into a civil war against the Bashar regime and civilian protesters. The death toll has reached 500,000 people, which the majority were killed by the Bashar regime. The civil war has left thousands dead, with many people risking their
The civil war in Syria is among the most recent civil wars. The war started on the 15th of March 2011.The wars led to one of the largest exoduses in recent history where millions o Syrians led their country to seek asylum in countries in their neighborhood and beyond. There was an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis that led to the civil war. The refugees resettled in various places including the United States of America, Lebanon among other destinations. The war broke out when the government wanted to intimidate numerous demonstrators of a famous group “Arab Spring”. This suppression of the demonstrators resulted in a nationwide rebellion leading to the devastation of places such as Aleppo with the
Syria is currently all over the news regarding what many have to come to see as a civil war. A term like civil war needs to identify the players and the reasons for the war. In this case the players are being identified as pro government or antigovernment with a Sunni or Shia overtone. Sunni and Shia are the two major sects of Islam and both have a historical based conflict going back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad and how Muslims should be governed. This conflict has caused tensions and violence to flare up throughout Islamic history. This conflict has carried into modern times and has becoming a rallying point for Muslim people calling for change with their government and across the Middle Eastern region. The
The Syrian Civil War started with a few protesters speaking out against the government, and has resulted in a raging civil war involving multiple countries. Violence from the country itself and other countries do not bring an end to the war in sight as Syria continues to fight against terrorist groups and for peace. The Syrian Civil War follows the Crane Brinton Model to a large extent.
Syrian civil war started in 2011 was the outcome of the opposition against the President Bashar al-Assad regime. The uprising emerged as a response to the Arab spring movement that lead to regime change in Tunisia and subsequently turned into mass unrest rooted into the discontent with long-term dictatorship and poor economic situation in the country (Manfreda, n.d.). The number of Syrian citizens killed in the civil war reached 140000 since March 2011 (SBS 2014). The European Commission (2014, 2) reports approximately 9.3 million civilians “in need for humanitarian assistance”. The scale of armed rebellion between government and opposition that lead to an increasing number of casualties among civilians did not remain unnoticed by the
There are a lot of things fueling violence in Syria, but there are 3 major parts. One of them is Sectarian conflict. Another is divided opposition. And the final one is foreign inference. Because of these 3 things there is too much violence in Syria, and too many people are dying.
The Syrian refugee crisis has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Currently, more than 12 million people are affected by the ongoing conflict happening in Syria. For the sake of comparison, the amount of people affected by both hurricane Katrina and the Haiti Earthquake, only totals to 5.2 million people (World Vision staff, 2015). These tragedies both hail in comparison to what his happening in Syria today.
The Syrian refugee crisis has received massive media coverage. People around the world are trying to comprehend the desperate, complicated situation surrounding Syria. The civil war in Syria is the worst crisis in our time. Syrians upset at the fact that long promised reforms have not been enacted, began anti-government demonstrations which started the civil war in 2011. The peaceful protests turned ugly, with the government violently putting an end to those protests. Afterward, ordinary citizens took arms, causing the situation to escalate. Syrians are fleeing their homes because of the great violence, which have left thousands dead and millions wounded, a collapsed infrastructure, resulting in a shattered economy, and for the safety of the children. Syrians are either streaming to surrounding countries or risking their lives to travel to Europe.