2017 Annual Report
Having in mind the great results of 2016, Baytna Syria started 2017 with energy to achieve better results. First of all, Baytna Syria worked on optimizing its structure by introducing new positions such as a Finance Manager and a Senior HR Officer for the first time. The M&E specialist was promoted to be a Program Development and Quality Manager and a new M&E specialist was hired towards the end of the year.
Given that Baytna Syria will be funded by multiple donors, the finance department worked on an allocation policy to reflect the new position of Baytna Syria.
On other hand, Baytna Syria worked on expanding its programs by approaching new donors to comply its objectives. A proposal with amount of 607,700 EUR has been developed to expand the grants program and sent to CARE International. The proposal has been approved by CARE and the implementation started by the beginning of February. This led to adding 450,000 EUR to the Basket of Funds at Baytna Syria. The expected outcomes of the project:
Immediate assistance is provided to the most vulnerable Syrians through WASH and shelter activities and distribution of essential non-food items (NFIs)
The capacity of Syrian community-based organizations (CBOs) to deliver humanitarian assistance is strengthened
Moreover, another proposal with amount of 958,650 EUR has been developed and sent to IRD to ex- pand Baytna Syria’s Capacity Building and Grants program in peacebuilding and conflict transformation as part of the ITT issued by the UK FCO. This is a three-year program that focuses on building the capacity of Syrian CSOs in peacebuilding processes. For Year 1, it includes 12 grants for Syrian CSOs in Syria, 60 training days about organizational development & conflict transformation and networking activities. The project was approved in the mid of July, but the implementation delayed to November 2017 due to money transfer and contracting challenges.
On the programmatic level, the three programs of Baytna Syria continued its activities as usual. In Grants program, 50 new projects have been awarded with a total amount of EUR € 771,060.61. In capacity bu- ilding program 38 workshops were delivered in Idlib, Aleppo, Damascus Suburbs, Quneitra and Daraa covering the following themes: organizational development, public policy and advocacy.
In the hub program, Baytna Syria hosted and organized more than 190 events where more than 3900 individuals attended those events. It’s worth mentioning here that the number of events participants decreased by 35% compared to 2016. This could be justified using the following reasons:
The Turkish government has imposed legal restriction on doing public events
The fragile status of most of Syrian CSOs in Turkey caused by the long processes to get work
permits for employees
The mass immigration or displacement of Syrian activists from Gaziantep either to Europe or
other Turkish cities
On the advocacy efforts, Baytna Syria continued to be involved in different initiatives at home and abroad including Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, EU, and think tank meetings.
