Syria Response Programme
Operating under the mandate of Security Council resolu...
Syria Response Programme
Operating under the mandate of Security Council resolution 2165 (renewed in 2017 with SCR 2393), UNMAS deployed the Syria Response programme at the request of the Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator in August 2015 and subsequently activated the Mine Action Sub Cluster under the Protection Cluster to address the impact of explosive hazards within Syria. UNMAS is the lead agency for the Mine Action Sub Cluster for the Syria Response. Established in Damascus since 2018, following the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Syrian Arab Republic, UNMAS strives to expand humanitarian mine action in Syria, with the aim to respond to high humanitarian needs. This includes humanitarian mine action activities prioritized in the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Syria: risk education, victim assistance, survey and clearance.
The conflict in Syria has been characterized by the extensive use of explosive weapons which resulted in large scale explosive hazard contamination, with the presence of diversified types of ordnances. According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) 2019 for Syria, 10.2 million people live in communities reporting explosive hazard contamination; men, women, and children, are exposed to the threat of grave injuries and death on a daily basis. Millions of people live with a permanent disability and new conflict-related trauma cases lead to thousands of permanent disabilities requiring long-term and multi-dimensional support.
Recent exchanges with UN agencies and observations made by the Syria Response Team have highlighted the immediate need for an explosive ordnance assessment capacity, which would be able to assess the threat of explosive ordnances including landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices. UN Agencies often suspect that explosive hazards are present in an area where they may be attempting to support humanitarian programming; many of these locations include potentially contaminated infrastructures. However, these agencies do not have the capacity to verify and prove or disprove the presence of suspected threat. Therefore, UNMAS Syria Response is in a position to provide its expertise and undertake Explosive Ordnance Assessments (EOA). The intervention will result in an explosive hazard assessment report defining the status of the infrastructure/area as containing or not containing explosive hazards. The intervention will result in an explosive hazard assessment report for each request defining the status of the infrastructure/area as containing or not containing explosive hazards and provide information to the communities to behave more safely.
Candidates who apply should note that they would be expected to deploy within a short notice period; please indicate your realistic availability and notice period