The Syria Humanitarian Fund (SHF) allocates $30 million to address critical needs in Syria

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) for Syria, Mr Imran Riza, announced today that the Syria Humanitarian Fund (SHF) is allocating US$ 30.8 million for lifesaving interventions in response to the rapidly growing needs of people in Syria. Today, 14.6 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, a 1.2 million increase from 2021. Thanks to the generous and timely contributions of 12 donors in 2022, totaling $37.3 million, this SHF allocation will reach some of the most vulnerable people in Syria, including children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and pregnant women, with urgent humanitarian assistance.

The SHF allocation aims to support life-saving interventions in worst-affected areas, as well as atrisk individuals, including women and girls. It will also strengthen coordination through inclusive programming and a localization strategy to boost the implementation of the 2022-2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), focusing on two priority areas.

Priority 1: Strengthening the nutrition response through the provision of multi-sector nutrition assistance in areas with the highest severity of needs and poor response reach. The response will focus on addressing key determinants of malnutrition ($8.1 million).

Priority 2: Strengthening the delivery of priority humanitarian assistance planned under the 2022-2023 HRP in areas with extreme and catastrophic needs (severity scale 4 and 5) and low coverage of response. The response will focus on strengthening resilience ($22.7 million).

“We have seen food insecurity increase dramatically with a consequent rise in malnutrition rates, especially amongst the most vulnerable groups. This allocation aims to address the needs of the worst-affected communities and is only possible due to the generosity of SHF donors.,” said Mr Riza.

The SHF is a country-based pooled fund led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria and managed by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since its inception in 2014, the SHF has received over $372 million from donors to support the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people in Syria.

The SHF remains one of the primary sources of direct funding for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Syria. For this allocation, 76 per of funding is channeled to NGOs, of which 20 per cent is allocated to national NGOs.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs