Cities in Syria, what's next and needed
What a historical day with the Assad regime and dynasty fallen. What’s next is hopefully a regime that allows a democratic process including the many fractions in the country. The fall of the Assad family’s reign over the last 54 years is the product of a shifted balance of power in the region - with Hezbollah and Iran weakened by Israel and Russia being fully occupied with its troops in Ukraine – combined with the rise of rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.
Cities have played a key role as forts holding the power of different regions and fractions in Syria. Syria is around 60% urbanized and images of destruction of the Cities of Homs, Raqqa, Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus have marked the last decade of civil war and oppression. They have formed strategic milestones in the advance of the Syrian rebels over the last few days. Cities have become the prime battlefields of contemporary warfare with enormous suffering of people and destruction of infrastructure as the tragic outcome.
Big challenge is where to start in the reconstruction of Syrian Cities that has suffered over a decade of destruction. Who does not remember images of Aleppo recognized as the most damaged city in Syria after four years of war in 2012-2016[1]. Both reconstruction of urban infrastructure to create jobs and provide urban services as well as ramping up housing on the shortest possible term for the millions of returning diaspora is crucial. With 3.7 million Syrians registered by the Government of Türkiye alone and 1.9 Syrian refugees registered in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon[2] international aid must accelerate reconstruction and build housing at scale to sustain a peaceful transition. Cities play an important factor in guarding stability, but the opposite is also true. Cities can be centers vulnerable to opposition promising change when its population has not sufficient access to urban services, housing and jobs.
There is a special role for the EU, who has been politically occupied with immigration not in the least around refugees from Ukraine and Syria. While European politics has shifted to the right in the last year(s) and development aid has been politicized and suffering from budget cuts, now is the time to act with sufficient resources. ?
The EU with its member states is the largest donor to the Syrian Crisis with in 2024 alone nearly 160 million Euro in humanitarian aid[3]. Sufficient development aid in conjunction with humanitarian aid is what’s needed to support stability and not let fragile Syria slip back and break up. International Development resources should focus on urban infrastructure which not usually is the case. Cities, reconstruction and well-developed housing is a very different game than investing in power plants, highways, ports and industries.
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Development aid with a focus on reconstructing cities in Syria will serve the political agenda of the the EU and its Member States on both sides of the aisle and will support a peaceful transition in Syria to come.
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Community Planner | Principal at Nexus Planning Services
1 个月Rogier van den Berg - Sharing for your and your colleagues benefit - www.syriacityprofiles.com. Cheers, Ryan
Senior Programme Manager at Fondazione Terre des hommes Italia - ONLUS
2 个月Very Interesting article
Global Director WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities
2 个月“War-time urban developments in Damascus cannot be considered as reconstruction projects. Instead, they are a continuation of the earlier initiated authoritarian neo-liberal planning model, supplemented by a new set of laws and decrees that allow local authorities to form private-public partnerships to share the financial benefits of new investments with private investors.” This in depth research argues that the geography- and political economy of warfare affects housing patterns which are more beneficial to investors and the incumbent government than a real reconstruction effort. With a new regime in Syria -first and foremost occupied with brokering a coalition of the many fractions in the country -questions of reconstruction will be front and center to develop the weakened economy. If the current laws and decrees installed under the Assad regime will not be structurally revised with a focus on reconstruction and offering the incentives for affordable housing, Syrian cities will fall prey to early movers with capital who will be allowed landgrab in order to develop same sort of symbolic developments as under war-time policies. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397519309464
Climate Change Researcher | Environmental Diplomacy | Circular Economy | Human Rights Activist | Founder - greentime.news
2 个月Insightful