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As of April 2018, Turkey hosts over 3,5 million Syrians under Temporary Protection. Syrians are mainly located in the Southeast Anatolia region bordering Syria, but as the crisis continues, the population has expanded to other regions as well. Turkey hosts the largest refugee population in the world and has demonstrated strong national ownership of the response. According to the Government of Turkey, it spent 30 billion USD over the last 6 years on the response to the Syria crisis.
91% of the Syrians in Turkey live in urban areas concentrated in the South-eastern provinces and the metropolitan areas of İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Bursa with significant impact on the local labour markets. The influx of Syrians into Turkey has resulted in an unprecedented demand for municipal services, including waste management, waste water management and fire-fighting services. Language is one of the main constraints for Syrians to have access to employment opportunities in Turkey.
UNDP has been the only UN agency in Turkey so far providing direct support to municipalities on municipal services, including waste and waste water management, both in terms of physical infrastructure development and technical support. UNDP support provided under previous projects, focussed primarily on the provision of equipment and infrastructure development. The new project expands these efforts by including new municipalities, a broader scope of municipal services and technical support.