Provision of dignity kits for women and girls affected by the ongoing crisis in northwest Syria Of the 4.5 million people living in northwest Syria, more than half – 2.8 million – are living in displacement, 4.1 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and 3.1 million are in need of health assistance.  Out of the area’s population, 1.8 million live in camps and informal settlements. UNFPA estimates that 1,250,000 women and girls in northwest Syria are of reproductive age and in need of lifesaving and life-sustaining protection and reproductive health services in addition to 1,770,257 that are in need of GBV services. The GBV Sub Cluster partners have continued to report that women and children are being exposed to serious protection risks such as GBV, particularly in informal settlements where makeshift WASH facilities do not provide for privacy. Anticipated severe weather conditions are expected to have serious humanitarian impacts on people’s access to basic services exacerbating protection risks. As identified in the continuous needs assessments conducted by the GBV Sub-cluster, the demand for dignity kits (DK) from currently displaced women and girls of reproductive age continues to outweigh the sector response. Thus, funds are needed to immediately cover this gap. In alignment with the priorities and need assessments undertaken by the GBV Sub-cluster, this project aims to procure and tranship 65,000 DKs, which will substantially help to bridge the current gap. This action will also contribute to enhancing a more efficient response to the ongoing emergency and help UNFPA and its partners to address faster and more efficiently basic protection needs of women and girls. UNFPA Türkiye Cross Border (TXB) responds to emergencies in accessible areas of north-west Syria (NWS) through cross-border operations delivering lifesaving and life-sustaining supplies and services to protect and uphold the rights, safety and dignity of women and adolescent girls affected by the protracted crisis. UNFPA Dignity Kits (DKs) provide the basic hygiene and safety related items to protect the affected towels, such as reusable sanitary pads, towels, flash lights. UNFPA is the lead of the GBV Sub Cluster and is the main provider of DKs in northwest Syria. Through this project, UNFPA TXB will procure and tranship DKs to northwest Syria through World Vision International (WVI). This will significantly contribute to enhancing timely and adequate preparedness to, inter alia, mitigating risk factors for GBV. 

While DK distribution inside northwest Syria is outside the scope of this action, the kits will be distributed in 2022 and early 2023 by a UNFPA partner, İhsan İnsani Yardım Ve Dayanışma Dernaği (Ihsan). Ihsan is a partner of both UNFPA and World Vision International.  Criteria for receiving these in-kind items will be specific to the function of the kit. Distribution criteria for DKs will include, inter alia: displaced women and girls of reproductive age. Priority will be given to women and girls at-risk of GBV females with a disability single female-headed households and women and girls in acute emergency. WVI and Ihsan are active members of the Türkiye/Gaziantep-based cluster coordination system. In 2019, UNFPA has started a partnership with WVI, which has enabled it to successfully and efficiently complete similar actions. WVI enjoys outstanding expertise protection as well as in procurement and logistics. WVI has prior experience and proven expertise in procuring dignity  kits and has a unique position in terms of accessibility to the proposed locations thanks to its well-established partnership with Ihsan. Ihsan has extensive experience in the distribution of DKs and therefore has the acquired and necessary expertise and the logistic capacity. Ihsan also has a strong established presence in northwest Syria with unrestricted access to IDPs. Ihsan maintains three warehouses in strategic areas in northwest Syria. The DKs, procured by World Vision International, will be transshipped and delivered to Ihsan’s warehouses