Civil society is calling for the creation of a Regional Growth and Stabilization Plan to help those countries most affected by the refugee crisis to mitigate the impact of the crisis on their economies, health systems, and social services. We urge the G20 to support immediate action to respond to this crisis and call upon the international community to immediately:
Work towards a political solution to the conflict in Syria while taking con-crete measures to protect civilians caught up in the fighting.
Support the timely creation of a multi-stakeholder Regional Growth and
Stabilization Plan to provide adequate and commensurate support to Syria’s neighbors who have shouldered the vast majority of Syrian refugees since 2011. This plan should go beyond humanitarian relief to include:
Sustainable development projects
Education
Livelihood programs
Reconstruction funds
Recognize displacement as a development challenge, and acknowledge the skills and incomes refugees contribute to host nations, as well as humanitarian and protection issues.
Issue a G20 call for action on the refugee crisis at the Leaders’ Summit with concrete policy actions.
Accept additional refugees from the region by increasing resettlement quotas to help alleviate the pressure of mass exodus currently on Syria’s neighbors.
Recommended communiqué language:
We recognize the severity of the Syrian refugee crisis and its humanitarian and economic impact on the region. We welcome the funding appeal of the United Nations and international partners (the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan), which aims to support the resilience of refugee-hosting countries and strengthen the refugee protection programs in the region and we urge the international community to fulfil the funding pledges made at the Geneva (2014) and the Kuwait (2015) donor conferences.
The crisis has generated the largest refugee movement since World War II and, according to the IMF is likely to contribute to slower global growth. In recognition of this and in order to provide adequate and commensurate support to Syria’s neighbors who shoulder the vast majority of Syrian refugees, we call for the timely creation of a Regional Growth and Stability Plan, akin to the plan that fostered Europe's recovery at the end of the Second World War. Such a plan would mitigate the impact of the crisis on Syria's neighbors and foster stability in the region.
We furthermore encourage the World Bank, the United Nations and its Agencies, to work to closely with the governments of the affected countries to determine the scale of funding required to bring their economies back to pre-crisis levels and to identify specific areas which require financial assistance and technical expertise of the international community.
Background
The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest mass movement of people since the Second World War. There are over 8 million internally displaced people in Syria and 4 million refugees in neighboring countries. In Jordan, 1 in 13 is a Syrian refugee, and over a quarter of the Lebanese population are Syrian refugees.
According to the World Bank, the additional pressure on public services will cost the Lebanese government an extra US $1 billion per year, and will push an additional close to 180,000 Lebanese into poverty.
Contact
For more information and background to these recommendations contact Julien Schopp, Director of Humanitarian Practice at InterAction: jschopp@interaction.org.