Healthcare in Syria has been particularly weakened by years of conflict. Only 62 per cent of hospitals are functional and around 70 per cent of healthcare staff have left the country. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been helping to maintain health services for the people there through partner organisations since 2017. New hospital partnerships now enable the company to harness knowledge from Germany too.

Hospital partnerships bring advantages for Germany and Syria

There are numerous healthcare workers from Syria in Germany who want to do something for their old homeland. The hospital partnerships now give them the opportunity to make an active contribution to reconstruction from Germany. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is expanding its Hospital Partnerships funding programme to Syria. To kick things off, doctors, nurses, therapists and other medical professionals will be coming together at the first conference on German-Syrian hospital partnerships in Berlin on 12 February. GIZ is implementing the programme. The hospital partnerships currently link hospitals and medical non-governmental organisations in Germany with health facilities in over 70 partner countries. The concept has proven itself in crisis contexts. In Ukraine, for example, GIZ has set up a nationwide network of 35 German and 80 Ukrainian hospitals since the beginning of the war. Experts from both countries are now working together to help stabilise healthcare services for the population.