Chronology of the Syrian Civil War and Its Impacts on the Country

Cause and effect of issue

Prior to the conflict, many Syrians were complaining about the high unemployment rate, corruption and a lack of political freedom due to President Bashar al-Assad, who rose to power and succeeded his father, Hafez, after his death in 2000.

What ultimately began as a protest in march 2011, where pro-democratic demonstrations arose in the southern city of Deraa rapidly escalated when the government used deadly forces to crush the dissent causing nationwide protests demanding the president's resignation. These demonstrations were inspired by the “arab springs” taking place in neighboring countries. The violence rapidly intensified and the country eventually descended into civil war.

Environmental impact

Over time, the conflict has caused the breakdown of urban systems in many cities as houses, public services and infrastructure inclusive of roads, schools, and hospitals have been destroyed, increasing the threat of economic collapse in many areas. Cities like Homs, Aleppo, Damascus, and many smaller towns, have served as battlegrounds for government and rebel offensives, with tragic consequences for their inhabitants. Several years of constant combat and warfare within Syria has obliterated all forms of infrastructure with a total of 109,393 structures damaged, contributing to the 200 billion dollar estimated cost of rebuilding the country. Across 10 cities a study focused on, 27 percent of the housing stock had been impacted, with 7 percent destroyed and 20 percent partially damaged. Aleppo is among the worst impacted cities with 8 percent destroyed housing units and 23 percent partially damaged, mainly due to its constant exposure to the conflict.

Economical impact

From 2011 until the end of 2016, the cumulative losses in gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at $226 billion, four times the Syrian GDP in 2010. Disruptions in economic organization is a prominent factor of the conflict’s economic impact as it has also severely diminished economic connectivity. The longer the conflict persists, the greater economic impact the conflict will have on the Syrian society, rendering it very difficult to build efficient institutions and effective economic mechanisms.

Effectiveness of the response of one non-government organisation

Several NGOs have responded to the crisis in syria, all of which pledge to assist all people in desperate need of assistance. One of the major NGOs [Non government organisations], world vision strives to assist families in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, as well as Iraq, which have all suffered from conflict and humanitarian crises and works beyond families’ basic needs to tackle complex social problems that affect children’s rights and individual resilience.

With the help of donations, world vision are responsible for: helping people access food, clean water, essential sanitation and hygiene services, providing shelter and emergency supplies such as blankets, stoves and warm winter clothing, supporting fractured health systems: hospitals, maternal services, health centres and mobile clinics, providing safe spaces for children to learn, play and receive other forms of support, implementing programs addressing children’s social interactions, family bonds and psychosocial wellbeing, as well as supporting bridging courses and additional classes to get children back to school.

In 2018, World Vision’s Syria response assisted 1.2 million people, including 700,000 children. Since then, world vision has helped more than 2.5 million people in the region alone which is over 20% of their main objective which therefore exemplifies world visions progression with their main objective to dramatically decrease the 12 million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Until the war ends, world visions progress will be slow and steady due to the imminent threat of the conflict taking place in neighboring cities to world visions camps, which will make transporting the necessary goods and services an almost impossible task. This impacts my judgement on the effectiveness of world vision's response to the conflict taking place in syria, and influences my conclusion that world vision's response is effective due to the positive results accumulated over the duration of the conflict which is still undergoing therefore increasing the difficulty of world visions task.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this report provides necessary information regarding the extent of the syrian civil war, the contributing environmental and economical impacts associated with the conflict, and the effective response from a non-government organisation striving to help syrians in desperate need of assistance.