Mission Report, XB-Syria, January 2017

According to the November 2016 OCHA’s Humanitarian Dashboard for the Turkey-Syria Cross Border Response, 13.5 million people in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 8.7 million of those in acute need of multi-sector assistance. Additionally, there are approximately 4.6 million residing in so-called hard-to-reach areas, including 490,000 people in areas besieged by either government forces or non-state armed groups.

The high number of those affected coupled with their needs continue to largely outweigh and surpass the capacity of humanitarian actors to respond, both physically and financially, with ECHO's response not able to sufficiently cover all of the most urgent needs. Life-saving activities continue to be prioritised as a key focus for the HIP 2017, with a push for partners to clearly demonstrate systemic solutions to identified problems in order to ensure the widest coverage possible to assist the most vulnerable, upholding quality programming standards within a framework of cost effectiveness and efficiency. This includes a focus on Protection, Health, WASH, Food Security, Education in Emergencies (EiE) and Basic Assistance inside of Syria.

As a follow up to the mission that was conducted in June 2016, the mission aimed to provide technical support to evaluate funded actions with WASH and Shelter partners under the HIP 2016, along with update the WASH and Shelter strategy and operational framework in preparation for the review of HIP 2017 proposal submissions and funding decisions.

OCHA (2016). Turkey – Syria. Humanitarian Dashboard – Cross Border Response Jan – Sept 2016 (issued on 08 Nov 2016)