The situation of older and disabled Syrian refugees

The conflict in Syria has now been running for 3 years and the humanitarian community is still grappling with one of its biggest ever challenges. HelpAge and Handicap International have recently commissioned a report of the situation of older people and people with disabilities in the Syrian refugee populations in Lebanon and Jordan.

Based on sample of 3000 refugees, the report raises major concerns about the way in which humanitarian programmes routinely fail to provide appropriate assistance to this vulnerable group. Some of the issues are raised include inaccurate demographic data; imprecise targeting and registration; and a lack of proper acknowledgement about the high incidence of psychosocial distress among the elderly and the disabled.

ALNAP is concerned to optimise collective learning from the Syria crisis to improve international emergency response and has recently established a Evaluation and Learning Portal (CALL) which provides a library of learning resources. Alongside this, a series of learning events are taking place which includes the launch of this important report. Humanitarian assistance is predicated on various fundamental principles including ‘impartiality’ and is performance is measured by OECD DAC criteria including ‘coverage’ . The launch of this report will allow participants to get a better understanding of how the system appears to be failing according to these criteria and will also provide an opportunity to discuss what measures for improvement can be taken in the future.

For more information or to register to attend in person or online please visit http://www.odi.org.uk/events/3911-disability-elderly-syrian-refugees