UNDP: Building Resilience in Response to the Syrian Crisis

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The four and half years of Syrian war has created but a biggest humanitarian catastrophe since the World War II but above all a regional development crisis. Conflict feeds radicalization and has helped ISIL become a global threat. The conflict has its direct consequences to security in Europe - and in Finland. Now also taking a form of a refugee crisis. The UN has lauched, for the first time in history, two holistic response plans encompassing both humatarian assistance and support to the resilience of the host communities. These are the Syria Strategic Response Plan (SRP, led by OCHA) and Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan 2015-2016 (3RP, co-led by UNHCR and UNDP.) The joint plans combine the work of the UN family and hundreds of other international and national NGOs both in Syria and in neighboring countries (Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt). All are ODA-eligible Middle-Income Countries. UNDP is responsible for coordinating the resilience efforts in both SRP and 3RP. To facilitate this it has put up a regional portfolio of resilience projects. Finland will contribute 4 million euros to this portfolio. Finnish support will be channeled to Livelihoods and social cohesion sector projects on this list, worth ca. 200 MUSD. On its monitoring Finland focuses on results related to women's economic empowerment. Small part of Finnish funding will be allocated to UNDP's regional Syria Response Facility to be used on analysis and research on resilience-based approach. This is an important topic on Finnish development policy and by investing on it Finland maximize its influence and visibility.