Since 2018, the Facilitating Urban Recovery and Transition (FURAT) programs have been a leader in restoring essential services in northeast Syria following years of war and the defeat of ISIS. Essential services like water, sanitation, emergency response, and rubble removal are critical to returning stability to northeast Syria and building confidence in local councils, limiting the space for an ISIS resurgence.
FURAT implemented these essential services through local councils as part of its sustainable approach to restoring services. FURAT embedded technical experts in the councils to build their service provision capacity, which resulted in more than 2,000 mentoring sessions reaching hundreds of council employees. Capacity-building areas included finance, procurement, project management, and reporting.
As a result of this capacity-building support, FURAT and its local partners restored water access for more than 1.5 million people, rehabilitated 200 miles of sanitation networks, removed 25 million cubic feet of rubble, and exhumed more than 6,000 bodies. FURAT’s support for emergency response established fire brigades and protected agricultural crops like wheat and barley from wildfires in a region facing food shortages.
The program was funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and implemented by Creative Associates International.