Provision of dignity kits for women and girls affected by the ongoing emergency in northwest Syria Of the 4.2 million people living in northwest Syria, more than half – 2.7 million – are living in displacement, and 3.5 million require humanitarian assistance. Out of the staggering 1.6 million people living in IDP sites, an estimated 80 % are women and children. An estimated 25% of these females are of reproductive age. 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. As identified in the Northwest Syria Readiness and Response Plan, the procured stock of dignity kits (DK) is enough to meet the needs of less than 23% of the currently displaced women and girls of reproductive age. Funds are needed to immediately cover this gap. This project aims to procure and preposition 130,000 DKs, which will substantially help cover the current gap. 

UNFPA Cross Border Programme responds to emergencies in areas of Syria accessible through cross-border operations delivering lifesaving and life-sustaining supplies and services to protect the rights, safety and dignity of women and young people affected by crises. UNFPA DKs provide the basic hygiene and safety related items to protect the affected women and girls' dignity during emergencies. UNFPA is the lead of the GBV Sub Cluster and is the main provider of DKs in northwest Syria. UNFPA's implementing partner, Ihsan Relief and Development, as well as GBV SC members on the ground will implement the distribution of DKs.

Through this project, in-kind contributions in the form of DKs (130,000 kits) will be procured and prepositioned inside northwest Syria for the purpose of timely and adequately preparedness to, inter alia, mitigating risk factors for GBV. Criteria for receiving these in-kind items will be specific to the function of the kit. While DK distribution is not part of project's scope, criteria for the distribution of DKs will include: 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. The project will therefore contribute to filling the shortage gaps with regard to DKs in northwest Syria, which, in turn, will guarantee a more efficient response to the ongoing emergency and help UNFPA and its partners address the basic protection of affected women and girls.

UNFPA will procure DKs that promote mobility and safety of women and girls by providing age and gender appropriate items in addition to sanitary supplies and basic hygiene items. Although the actual distribution of the DKs is not part of the scope of this project, the DKs will also be used as an entry point for GBV services including, inter alia, awareness raising, case management referral and Psychological First Aid. Thus DK distribution serves a wider protection purpose as outlined as a main protection gap in the Norhwest Syria Readiness and Response Plan. 

While DK distribution inside northwest Syria is not part of the scope of this project, the kits will be distributed in 2021 by UNFPA partner, Ihsan Relief and Development, who has always been UNFPA's implementing partner for 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 two warehouses in strategic areas in northwest Syria accessible through the UNSCR authorized border crossing point. The procured and transshipped DKs will be prepositioned in these warehouses over the course of the distriubution. Together with UNFPA, Ihsan participated in the development of guidance pertaining to the concept and the distribution of DKs. This guidance was approved by the GBV SC.