The end of Syria's brutal civil war is not in sight. The combatants are locked in a grinding, attritional battle that is as complex as it is cruel. More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed over the past five years, and roughly half of the country's citizens have been forced to flee their homes.
Some of Syria's most important urban centers have been devastated by endless street fighting and aerial bombardment. Just see my colleague Loveday Morris's stark accounts and photographs from inside the country earlier this year.
While diplomats wrangle in Geneva over a nascent, faltering peace process kick-started by the United Nations, other organizations are scratching their heads over the huge challenge of reconstructing and rebuilding a country that has been torn apart. In 2014, a U.N. study suggested that it would take Syria at least three decades to recover.
The World Bank is trying to come to grips with the nuts and bolts of the destruction. Using satellite imagery of six Syrian cities, the organization came up with assessments for the damage wrought on these urban centers. A conservative estimate on the losses in public infrastructure sits at $6 billion.
"The Bank is using cutting edge, tried and tested methods for Syria to be ready to engage when conflict abates," Ferid Belhaj, World Bank country director for the Middle East, said in a statement. "Technology can allow us to draw up realistic and actionable plans for working in Syria in a way we haven't been able to do before -- before the conflict actually ends."
Those plans will have to include a considerable effort to make up for a housing sector that has been literally reduced to rubble.
According to the World Bank's analysis of six cities, Aleppo, once Syria's most populous metropolitan center and financial capital, bore the brunt of the destruction.
The damage to Aleppo -- the site of a multi-front contest between regime forces, rebels, Kurdish militias and the Islamic State militant group - has doubled in the past two years.
Despite the bleakness of the current moment, the bank argues, diplomats and officials have to start thinking beyond the political endgame.
"Syria would have been a better place without the terrible human and physical damage done by a brutal and tragic war," Belhaj said in his statement. "But today even before the dust settles the post-war effort needs to be launched from the region ... to create jobs and much-needed economic expansion that will help, albeit sadly only partially, restore hope and open the long and uncertain path to reconciliation and peace."
The Washington Post
Fri May 27 2016
A conservative estimate on the losses in public infrastructure in Syria sits at $6 billion.
Usia Persaraan: KWSP disaran sediakan pinjaman untuk akaun 1 penyimpang
KWSP disaran untuk lebih kreatif bagi membantu penyimpan capai jumlah ideal untuk zaman persaraan, iaitu sekitar RM240,000.
Penganalisis Ekonomi Dr Barjoyai Bardai mencadangkan KWSP pertimbang beri pinjaman untuk akaun 1, dengan syarat ia tidak boleh diganggu.
#AWANI745
Penganalisis Ekonomi Dr Barjoyai Bardai mencadangkan KWSP pertimbang beri pinjaman untuk akaun 1, dengan syarat ia tidak boleh diganggu.
#AWANI745
MoF tiada rekod surat kelulusan Najib
Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur diberitahu, Kementerian Kewangan tidak mempunyai pengetahuan mengenai dua surat kelulusan yang ditandatangani oleh Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak selaku Menteri Kewangan.
#AWANI745
#AWANI745
Kes saman Ahmad Zahid terhadap Muhyiddin selesai secara baik
Kes saman yang difailkan Timbalan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi terhadap bekas Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, selesai secara baik di Mahkamah Tinggi hari ini.
AWANI Borneo [26/04/2024] - Permintaan terkahir Joanna | Cakna kepentingan pertahanan | Jangan takut ugutan
Laporan berita padat dan ringkas dari Borneo bersama Nickyson Nyambar;
#AWANIBorneo 26 April 2024
Suami mendiang Joanna dedah hasrat isteri untuk Gawai ini
Sarawak berpotensi jadi pemain industri pertahanan negara
Jangan berdiam, Armizan minta pemilik syarikat minyak lapor jika terima ugutan
#AWANInews
#AWANIBorneo 26 April 2024
Suami mendiang Joanna dedah hasrat isteri untuk Gawai ini
Sarawak berpotensi jadi pemain industri pertahanan negara
Jangan berdiam, Armizan minta pemilik syarikat minyak lapor jika terima ugutan
#AWANInews
Gelombang haba bawa derita baharu, risiko penyakit ke Gaza
Peningkatan suhu melampau luar jangka di seluruh Gaza menambah derita yang dihadapi warga Palestin setiap hari di semenanjung itu.
Tarikh akhir pengemukaan Borang E dan CP8D dilanjutkan hingga 31 Mei
Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) hari ini memaklumkan tarikh akhir pengemukaan Borang E dan C.P.8D dilanjutkan hingga 31 Mei ini.
Freedom Flotilla to Gaza: AS terus beri tekanan kepada Turki
AS yang merupakan rakan sekutu Israel dilaporkan terus memberi tekanan yang hebat kepada Turki untuk tidak memberi kebenaran pelayaran misi Break The Siege Freedom Flotilla to Gaza.
Rumah terbuka himpunkan penduduk pelbagai kaum Kinabatangan
Sekitar 3,000 pengunjung daripada pelbagai kaum dan agama menghadiri rumah terbuka aidilfitri daerah Kinabatangan.
#AWANIBorneo
#AWANIBorneo
Enam inisiatif kekalkan momentum pertumbuhan Labuan IBFC 2024
Ketua Pengarah Lembaga Perkhidmatan Kewangan Labuan (Labuan FSA) Nik Mohamed Din Nik Musa berkata inisiatif ini penting dalam merangka hala tuju Labuan IBFC ketika Pelan Hala Tuju Strategik Lima tahunnya (2022-2026) memasuki tahun ketiga.
#AWANIBorneo
#AWANIBorneo
Sindiket ancam bakar stesen minyak harus dilaporkan - Armizan
Pemilik stesen minyak yang diancam sindiket penyeludupan diesel bersubsidi disaran membuat laporan secara rasmi kepada Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Kos Sara Hidup (KPDN), kata Menterinya Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.
#AWANIBorneo
#AWANIBorneo