When I visited seven out the 14 Governorates in Syria last October and asked around what people really needed, Syrians told me they wanted access to health, education, housing and, above all, they wanted jobs. 

For over a decade, the story of Syria has been one of conflict and humanitarian crisis. Around 7.4 million are internally displaced in Syria and 1.2 million - of the millions of Syrians who live abroad as refugees – have returned but they have not found the means to sustain decent livelihoods. They need the support of the international community, in complement to the efforts already being led at the national level.

The most effective way of using foreign assistance in Syria relies on three interconnected pillars: infrastructure reconstruction, economic revitalization, and strengthened local governance. 

Every society requires essential conditions to function. In Syria we have reached a critical moment where it is necessary to transition from simply meeting emergency needs to focusing on lasting developmental effort. It is not just a Syrian imperative—it is essential for long-term peace and stability across the entire region.

Rebuilding the Foundations of daily life

Many cities have been devastated, with homes, hospitals, schools, roads, and power plants severely damaged or destroyed. Lands are littered with unexploded ordnance, which must be safely cleared before people can return home, or farmers can begin growing crops again. In the past ten years, UNDP led debris removal efforts across Syria, clearing over 2.1 million cubic meters of rubble. In the coming months, we plan to remove over 550,000 cubic meters of debris across four governorates. Innovatively, in northwest Syria, we recycled 257,000 metric tons of debris to reuse in road rehabilitation, public squares, and other areas.

The priorities for Syrians to go back to a normal life are threefold:

• Shelter and Community: Some families are leaving camps to live in tents on top of their collapsed homes in areas of returns. Rebuilding houses is the first step to allowing displaced families and refugees to return home safely and with dignity.

• Health and Education: Restoring hospitals, water management systems, and sanitation infrastructure and schools and creating jobs in these fields is fundamental to restoring public health and providing a future for children. Over 2.4 million children are out of school with one in three schools (+7,000) still unusable, either damaged, destroyed, or converted into shelter, creating a “loss of education-generation”.

• Connectivity and Energy: Repairing roads and power plants reconnects communities, enables the movement of goods, and literally powers recovery. Often, Syrians have access to only two hours of nationally provided electricity per day due to the overload of the national grid. 

Reviving the Engine: Economic Recovery and the Power of Finance

The GDP of Syria now is less than half of what it used to be before the conflict, about one in four people in Syria is unemployed and nine out of ten live in poverty. A nation cannot recover if its people cannot earn a living. Economic recovery must focus on empowering individuals and small businesses to rebuild from the ground up.

• Support Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing microfinance and encouraging private sector investment. With subsidized loans, UNDP supports job creation, stimulates markets and helps entrepreneurs accessing credit through guarantees and derisking, including women to restart businesses.

• Enable foreign investment, private sector environment including policies, and trade. UNDP works on value chains development in collaboration with the Syrian Ministries along with the chambers of commerce and industries to create opportunities and business to business models. 

Strengthening the System: Effective Local Governance

Rebuilding bricks and mortar is futile without strong institutions to manage them. Effective governance is the glue that holds recovery together. This involves strengthening both central and, crucially, local government structures.

• Service Delivery: Local governments are on the front lines, responsible for delivering essential services like water, sanitation, electricity, health, and education—needs that become even more pressing so people can return to their home and feel they are better off in Syria. People should be returning to places where they can have livelihoods, they can have work, and they can have access to basic services.

• Social Cohesion: Promoting systemic mediation to community dialogues with the Government to community leaders is vital in Syria to overcome lasting and inherited divisions, address grievances and promote trust. 

The Way Forward: A Coordinated Transition to Sustainable Development

World Bank estimated that Syria’s recovery price tag could reach $216 billion. If Syria doesn’t move on a trajectory of economic and development growth, the 16.5 million Syrians who are in need for humanitarian access will only multiple. 

The international community must come together to prioritize the most effective activities for development assistance in Syria. Our models are effective and designed to bring Syria into its next phase of development, but UNDP cannot achieve this job alone. We need to partner with the international community, especially the private sector on compounded impacts. 

By channelling efforts into reconstruction, finance, and local governance, the international community can help Syria get back on its feet. The task is monumental, but Syria’s recovery supports a more peaceful, prosperous, and stable future for the region which also plays a critical role to global peace.