Syria’s decade of conflict takes massive toll on women and girls

This week, Syria marks a grim anniversary: 10 years since the start of the country’s grinding conflict. Today, one decade into the catastrophe, about half the country’s entire population has been uprooted, with some 12 million people in internal displacement or living as refugees. Atop the persistent insecurity, Syrians are also enduring the COVID-19 pandemic and worsening economic conditions – all of which are taking a disproportionate toll on women and girls across the region.

In the last decade, insecurity, fear, and intense economic pressures have sharply increased the vulnerability of women and girls, and rates of practices such as child marriage have spiked.

Access to school and health care – once taken for granted – are no longer assured. Among those in need of assistance across the region, close to half a million are pregnant, requiring access to quality sexual and reproductive health care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded these challenges, with movement restrictions keeping some women at home with abusers, and rising economic stress increasing tensions in the home.

A new generation looks to the future

UNFPA and partners remain committed to providing life-saving services to women and girls in Syria and in camps and host communities throughout the region. In 2020 alone, UNFPA delivered sexual and reproductive health services to nearly 2 million people, while almost 1.2 million were reached through programmes to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

Throughout the region, UNFPA supports 112 women’s and girls’ safe spaces, 17 youth centres, 33 emergency obstetric care facilities, 133 primary healthcare centres, and 125 mobile clinics. Over the past five years, UNFPA has been able to scale up its services, doubling the numbers of people reached.

But these continuing efforts require support from the international community. UNFPA is enhancing its regional response throughout 2021 to address challenges including the worsening economic situation and pandemic, for example by piloting cash and voucher assistance programmes. UNFPA will also continue tailoring programmes to make them more accessible to a wider range of groups, including adolescent girls, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQI community.

And amid the ongoing crisis, the people of Syria have not given up hope. Young people at UNFPA’s centres and programmes demonstrate remarkable resilience, with many rising above their challenges to become artists, activists, innovators, and other influential voices in their communities.