Sites & Settlements Working Group
Role of the SSWG
The Sites and Settlements Working Group (SSWG) is the CCCM sector for the cross-border Northeast Syria NGO response. The main role of the SSWG is to ensure the inclusion of key humanitarian partners within the sector and ensure effective, impartial, and transparent coordination. The Working Group provides support to NGO Camp Management agencies working in camps and to NGOs working in informal settlements and collective centres. The SSWG engages with key stakeholders including NGOs, UN agencies, the NES Forum Inter-Sector Working Group, Whole of Syria and, the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria
The SSWG is part of the NES Forum Inter-Sector Working Group (ISWG).
Last-resort sites in Northeast Syria
In Northeast Syria there are 12 camps, 10 of which have a static Camp Management presence and two camps with no Camp Management presence. Overall camps recieve sustained service provision from humanitarian actors however, these sites are at capacity and there are multiple gaps impacting the populations within these sites. For nearly all camps there are large waiting lists of households either hosted within the camp by other families or those who are residing in informal conditions outside the camp.
There are over 230 informal settlements and collective centres identified on the SSWG database across all governorates of Northeast Syria. These sites host IDPs that have often been displaced multiple times following conflict escalation. Furthermore as the economic situation in Syria continues to worsen, there are increasing numbers of people displaced for economic reasons. Overall both informal settlements and collective centres are severly underserved due to a lack of capacity for humanitarian actors to provide services as well as limitations on some interventions due to housing, land and property issues.