Syria’s Post-War Recovery
Allison Bennett
Staff Writer
On Monday, March 17, at a European Union-led conference in Brussels, Belgium, international donors pledged nearly $6.5 billion in aid to support Syria’s reconstruction after the fall of the Assad regime, aiming to stabilize the country and help Syria’s new leadership rebuild infrastructure to encourage a peaceful political transition within the country, reports The Jerusalem Post.
On December 8, 2024, the Assad regime in Syria collapsed when militants captured Damascus, causing Bashar Al-Assad and his family to flee to Moscow, Russia after 53 years of the Assad regime, with Bashar Al-Assad ruling for the last 24 years. Known to many in Syria as “The Butcher,” the Human Rights Foundation’s chair Yulia Navalnaya says, “The Assad dictatorship has fallen. Corruption, war crimes, and hatred for its own people were the trademarks of the al-Assad family.”
The Human Rights Foundation writes that between 2011 and 2021, the Assad regime killed 306,887 civilians, 27,126 of whom were children. Due to the regime’s denial of humanitarian aid to millions, 70 percent of the population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance, with 90 percent living below the poverty line as of March 2024.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that three out of four Syrians rely on humanitarian aid, requiring urgent development assistance, with malnutrition rates having tripled in the past four years. 57 percent of Syria’s hospitals and just 37 percent of primary healthcare centers are fully operational.
Throughout the country, there is a severe shortage of medical supplies, outdated equipment, and damaged infrastructure that continues to strain services and citizens. Many hospitals operate at minimal capacity and risk closing due to funding shortfalls, with 246 healthcare facilities at risk of imminent closure. 70 percent of Syria’s healthcare workforce has already left the country, while the WHO stresses that rebuilding healthcare capacity is essential to restoring sustainable health services and the workforce.
This year marked the first time the Syrian authorities were represented at the annual conference in Brussels, with interim Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani in attendance. Last year, 7.5 billion euros were raised in grants and loans to help the Syrian people. However, efforts to surpass that amount this year were impacted by United States President Donald Trump’s halting of Washington’s foreign aid budget says Radio France Internationale.
U.S. deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Syria, Natasha Franceschi, says that the U.S. has provided more assistance to the Syrian people than any other nation over the last 14 years. However, she did not announce any pledge of money this year. She is quoted further saying, “We will continue to provide certain assistance in line with U.S. policies and laws, but we also now expect that other nations are going to help shoulder the financial burden.”
While the U.S. pulls back on foreign funding as the Trump administration reviews all foreign aid, other Western governments are also cutting back on aid spending, in part to use for defense budgets. European Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib told reporters, “We will give more, but we cannot fill the gap left by the U.S. We will need to share the burden.”
Image courtesy of Getty Images.