North-West Syria: Situation Report (15 May 2024) [EN/AR]

HIGHLIGHTS

• The humanitarian response to Syria remains alarmingly underfunded. Only 6 per cent of the required funding for 2024 ($227 million of the $4.07 billion needed) has been received.
• With available funding, partners could only target 625,000 severely food-insecure people, out of 3.6 million food-insecure people, to prevent them from falling into starvation.
• Nearly 160 health facilities, including 46 hospitals, will be forced to suspend operations by this June if funding does not increase.
• Over 12,600 people, mostly in Idleb, were affected by flooding on 1 May. The UN and its partners have delivered food, tents, insulators and other aid to affected camps.
• Hostilities continue to be active in north-west Syria. Since the start of 2024, 11 civilians have been killed and 60 others, including 24 children, were injured, as of 30 April.

FEATURE

Response for Syria only 6 per cent funded ahead of Brussels VIII

The humanitarian community is facing its most challenging funding landscape for Syria after 13 years of conflict. As of 15 May, the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2024 is only 6 per cent funded.

This year, the humanitarian community is appealing for US$4.07 billion to assist 10.8 million people in Syria – a 15 per cent reduction from last year’s appeal before the earthquakes ($4.4 billion) - following an extensive prioritization exercise. The plan is alarmingly 6 per cent funded, having received only $227 million as of 15 May. Of this amount, an estimated $1.4 billion is required to help the 3.4 million most vulnerable people in north-west Syria. Only some $110 million has been received for the cross-border response.

The most underfunded sectors of the cross-border response are WASH and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM), each receiving less than five per cent of the required funding. This raises concerns for the 2 million people living in camps and informal sites, the majority of whom are women and children grappling with overcrowding conditions and threats of safety and weather events like recent flooding incidents. Over 12,600 people in 33 camps across Idleb and northern Aleppo were affected by rainfall and flooding on 1 May.

The Syria Cross-border Humanitarian Fund (SCHF), which was last year’s second largest country-based pooled funds managed by OCHA, is severely underfunded. By 15 May, the SCHF received only $9 million in paid contributions from six donors – a drastic drop from the $101 million it received in paid contributions during the same period in 2023. The years prior also saw a more robust funding pool with paid contributions amounting to $50 million in the first quarter of 2022, and $95 million in the first quarter of 2021.

In light of the funding situation, humanitarians, civil society, policymakers and government officials gathered in Brussels last month for various high-level engagements on Syria culminating in a donors pledging event on 27 May. This year’s Brussels VIII conference on “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region,” hosted by the European Union, kicked off with the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) on 17 April followed by the Day of Dialogue, on 30 April, and its side events the same week. The UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, David Carden, closed one of the side events organized by UN Women, addressing the “systemic barriers faced by women and girls in Syria.” He also stressed the urgency of funding needs for the response at the SOM.

Last year, donors pledged 5.6 billion euros at Brussels VII to help Syrians inside the country and in neighboring countries. International support was rapidly mobillized, enabling the Earthquake Flash Appeal to be fully funded by the end of last May. However, the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria was still less than 40 per cent funded by the end of last December, making it the least funded plan, percentage-wise, since the start of the crisis.