SYRIA Inquiry

UK Parliament International Development Committee

Submission by the United Nations World Food Programme 12.10.15

CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Humanitarian Context

Introduction to WFP’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis

THE REGION: Evolving Needs and WFP Operations

vulnerabilities and coping strategies

SYRIAN MIGRATION TO EUROPE

RECOMMENDATIONS

A LIFE IN LIMBO: SYRIAN STORIES

Executive Summary

• With no end in sight to the conflict in Syria, over 4 million Syrian refugees have been displaced to neighbouring countries and North Africa. In response, WFP and partners continue to deliver food assistance to the most vulnerable Syrian refugees. However, due to the increasingly sharp reductions in funding, many vulnerable Syrian refugees have had their assistance completely cut, while many who are most in need have had their assistance significantly reduced.

• Recent cuts in humanitarian assistance have forced Syrian refugees to adopt more severe negative coping strategies with long term impacts. This has increased the vulnerability of many Syrians, with more families reducing the number of meals they eat and more children being pulled out of school and sent to beg or work.

• The cuts in assistance and a lack of livelihood opportunities have been listed as key push factors, contributing to the increase in the number of Syrian refugees risking their lives to travel to Europe, where many hope for opportunities to work and re-build their lives. This represents a tripling in the number of sea arrivals compared to last year, from 200,000 to 600,000, with Syrians representing 54% of the latter figure. Syrians report crossing the war in Syria to get to Turkey, before taking a dangerous journey by boat to get to EU countries.

Humanitarian Context

1. The protracted civil war in Syria has entered into its fifth year and has resulted in the largest current displacement crisis globally and the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II, with 7.6 million internally displaced[1] and 4.1 million Syrians who have fled their country to the region[2].

2. Inside Syria, the humanitarian situation has worsened significantly over the past year and conditions in neighbouring countries are deteriorating. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) 2014 Assessment, over 250,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, while over one million people have been injured. Within the country, OCHA reported 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, 5.6 million of whom are children and an estimated 4.8 million of whom are in hard to reach and besieged locations.

3. Furthermore, the host countries in the region are the biggest donors to the Syrian Refugee Crisis, providing for the overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees who now make up significant proportions of their total populations, e.g. 25 percent in Lebanon. These countries should not have to absorb the burden of the Syrian Refugee Crisis alone and need continued international support.[3]

4. As the political aspects of the conflict further compound its social and economic impact, the vulnerability of Syrians continues to grow. As families move to seek shelter inside Syria and the region, whether with friends and relatives, in abandoned buildings or in camps, the resources required to feed and take care of their families remain uncertain. Without sufficient food and nutrition people are forced to continue to move in search of sustenance, resorting to extreme measures in order to survive. According to WFP’s 2014 assessment, there are 9.8 million people in Syria who are food insecure[4]. WFP is currently finalising an assessment looking at current food security levels across Syria and it is expected that this figure will remain challengingly high. In the region, food insecurity continues to grow as Syrians cope with greater cuts in WFP assistance.

Introduction to WFP’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis

5. Since civil unrest in Syria first began in 2011, WFP’s regional responses to the crisis are among the largest and most complex operations it has ever undertaken. Currently, the number of Syrian refugees in the region has reached over 4 million. WFP’s responses were implemented in challenging circumstances as needs inside and outside the country quickly increased. As such, WFP has responded to a fast-evolving, complex crisis and helped to improve and stabilize food security among the people it reached.

6. WFP’s response was scaled up quickly, assisting 2 million refugees across the region each month in 2014. Furthermore, WFP expanded its assistance through cash-based transfers to levels unprecedented in a humanitarian emergency in collaboration with the private sector, providing Syrians with greater flexibility and dignity.

7. In a transition towards facilitating greater independence and resilience among Syrian refugees, food assistance is now delivered to the majority of Syrian refugees through cash-based transfers. This modality ensures Syrian families more freedom of choice when it comes to food purchases and a sense of normalcy, but also contributes to the national economies of the host countries. Looking ahead, WFP will also be providing unrestricted cash where deemed appropriate.

8. However, despite outstanding donor support since 2012, funding has dwindled over the last year. This drop in financial support has led to an 30 percent reduction in the overall assistance WFP provides. Furthermore, due to even steeper funding cuts over the summer, over 355,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees have ceased to receive WFP assistance in Jordan and Lebanon, while extremely vulnerable Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are now receiving only 50 percent of the food assistance they did at the end of 2014. [5] Despite facing crippling financial challenges, WFP continues to provide as much assistance as possible to vulnerable Syrian refugees in the region. In August of this year, WFP reached 1.6 million Syrians – the majority of them through cash-based transfers.[6]

THE REGION: Evolving Needs and WFP Operations

9. Since the start of regional response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis, WFP has worked in collaboration with other actors to better understand the exact levels of food security and vulnerability amongst our beneficiaries in each of the five countries who have taken in the most Syrian refugees (Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt). Inter-agency vulnerability assessments have been continuously carried out in all countries. Completed assessments in Jordan (Comprehensive Food Security and Monitoring Exercise), and Iraq (Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment) are updated through monitoring findings, while those for Egypt (Inter-agency Vulnerability Assessment in partnership with UNHCR) and Lebanon (Vulnerability Assessment for Syrian Refugees) will be finalized by the end of the year.  This information serves to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of WFP’s operations, ensuring that those who are most in need receive life-saving assistance.

vulnerabilities and coping strategies

10. According to the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) Progress Report, the impact of the cuts this year to humanitarian assistance on Syrians living in host communities has rendered them increasingly vulnerable. This is, in large part, because Syrian refugees living in Jordan and Lebanon’s host communities have less access to humanitarian assistance and basic services such as healthcare, when compared to Syrians living in camps. More than 80 percent of Syrian refugees live in Jordan’s host communities, while in Lebanon, all Syrian refugees live in host communities. Social tensions reported within host communities in Jordan and Lebanon, where families are feeling the strain of refugee influxes on public services and competing for jobs, would be alleviated through investment in livelihoods. However Syrian refugees in these countries do not currently have access to legal employment. In an effort to remove barriers to work, there needs to be greater advocacy efforts made by international government to those hosting Syrians. Were these restrictions lifted, supporting the capacity of sectors such as construction and agriculture would result in increased employment opportunities, not only for Syrian refugees who would be contributing to their local economies, but for vulnerable people in host communities too. [7] 

Jordan

11. According to UNHCR, there are now nearly 630,000[7] Syrian refugees living in Jordan’s camps (Zaatari, Azraq), transit centres (Cyber City and King Abdullah Park) and host communities. This represents approximately 10 percent of Jordan’s population.

12. In January 2015, WFP had to reduce its voucher for the first time to 70 % of the original value, due to funding shortages. Using a comprehensive process to identify vulnerabilities, including the interagency Vulnerability Assessment Framework (VAF 2014/2015), WFP’s 2014 Comprehensive Food Security Monitoring Exercise (CFSME), UNHCR registration and household visit data, World Bank models and other valid vulnerability assessments, WFP began implementing a tiered approach in April in communities. While assistance was maintained to refugees in camps, at USD 28 per person each month,[8] assistance in the communities was chanelled towards the vulnerable  (some 240,000 refugees received USD 14 per person per month) or extremely vulnerable (some 200,000 refugees received USD 28 per person per month). Since then, the amount of food assistance to both groups has deteriorated. In August, those extremely vulnerable received half of the assistance they used to (only USD 14 per person for per month). Worse still, in September, further cuts resulted in 229,000 vulnerable Syrians being completely excluded.

13. The continued fall in funds has had many adverse effects on Syrian refugees living in Jordan’s host communities. An increase in the severity of coping strategies adopted by those affected is clearly evident from assessments,[9] monitoring findings[10] and interveiws with refugee housholds.

• 82 percent of people who stopped receiving food assistance reducing their food consumption per day;

• The number of households with a poor dietary diversity score doubled since last year.

• WFP’s report shows that nearly 80 percent of families borrowed money to pay for basic food needs, increasing their debt.

• 13 percent of families sent at least one member out to beg to meet basic food needs, compared to only 4 percent prior to September 2015.

• Children, who make up over half of the population of registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, are those most affected. The number of families who took their children out of school increased by 34 percent and those who sent under-aged children to work increased to 29 percent compared to 5 percent before September 2015.

14. In camps, Syrian refugees in Azraq were approximately as food insecure (22 percent) as those living in host communities (21 percent), while Syrians in Zaatari had the lowest level of food insecurity (9 percent). There is also a lack of economic opportunities in Azraq camp compared to the relatively large informal labour market in Zaatari Camp

15. In spite of the aforementioned financial challenges, WFP assisted over 306,000 people in September. Of these, nearly 20,000 were children who also benefited from WFP’s school feeding programme in the camps.[12]

Lebanon

16. In Lebanon, where there are no formal camps, Syrian refugees continue to struggle with cuts in humanitarian support. More than one million[11] Syrian refugees live in Lebanon’s host communities, representing roughly 25 percent of Lebanon’s total population.

17. In January, WFP was forced to reduce the monthly value to USD 19 per person. In July, this was further reduced to USD 13.5 per person per month[12] just 50 % of the amount required by each refugee in order to meet their basic food needs.

18. According to the findings of the Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees (VASyR)[13] and WFP’s report: Syrian Refugees in Communities in Lebanon: Impact of Reduced Assistance[14]:

• Household savings of Syrian refugees were increasingly depleted in 2015, compared to last year - 70 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live below the poverty line, at USD 3.84 per person per day, compared to 50 percent in 2014. Severe coping strategies were employed by most Syrians (67 percent) in order for them to meet their basic needs, compared with only 28 percent in 2014.

• Such strategies include 70 percent of Syrian refugees reducing the numbers of meals per day and over 80 percent borrowing money and falling into serious debt. The number of children removed from education doubled from 10 percent in 2014 to 20 percent in 2015.

19. In spite of its financial shortages, WFP provided food assistance to over 58 percent of the Syrian refugee population in September, reaching over 630,000 people.[15]

SYRIAN MIGRATION TO EUROPE      

20. The past months have seen a dramatic increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe. According to UNHCR data on EU migration the number of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach EU countries has tripled in 2015, compared to 2014, with Syrians making 54% of the nearly 600,000 of sea arrivals this year so far.

21. In REACH’s recent assessment of Syrian migration to Europe, the pull and push factors of Syrian refugee movements from Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to Europe were examined[16]. The drop in humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, as well as the barriers to secure legal access to livelihoods were all directly linked to the increase in those fleeing to Europe, with many Syrians reporting them as key push factors. Whereas security, safety and opportunity were cited as pull factors to EU countries in the REACH report.

22. Moreover, Syrian refugees are taking significant risks to realise the hope of sanctuary. REACH states those Syrians without passports most commonly reported a more dangerous journey than those with passports, travelling through Syria to get to Turkey. Reasons reported for not having passport were fear of government authorities and a lack of information about the process. In order to then get into Europe, Syrians cross over the Mediterranean Sea by boat - in 2015 alone, UNHCR found that more than 3000 people died taking this route.[19]

RECOMMENDATIONS

23. There needs to be a political resolution to the conflict in Syria. More than 250,000 Syrian lives lost in the civil war, 7.6 million Syrians internally displaced, over 4 million Syrians fled to the neighbouring countries; these figures all tell a story about a massive humanitarian crisis. Those who have fled Syria have endured a life of limbo in refugee camps and host communities for over four years and many more now taking life-threatening voyages to Europe.

24. In light of declining funding over 2015 and over 355,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon whose assistance was cut in September, there needs to be a transition towards regular and sustainable funding channels at levels that ensure refugees can begin taking care of their fmailies without resorting to extreme measures. Therefore, it will be essential to minimise the distinction between emergency and development funding.

25. As the conflict in Syria and the resulting regional impact s are now in the fifth year, it is imperative that humanitarian actors work with host governments in the region to provide humanitarian assistance in parallel with establishing and facilitating livelihood opportunities for both refugees and host communities. This, in turn, will work towards a transitional shift, away from the reliance on assistance to resilience and self-determination for Syrian refugees.

26. In light of the need for a transitional shift towards resilience, as outlines in the 3RP, WFP recommends that DFID increases its advocacy efforts for improved access to work for Syrians. The creation of livelihood opportunities is imperative for Syrians to be able to build a life for themselves. Moreover, this will contribute to the local economies of host countries and alleviate social tensions. However, this cannot be realised without greater international support to host governments.

27. Without sustainable funding and support to host countries, Syrian refugees’ lives will be placed in jeopardy. Children are, without doubt, the most affected. They have poor dietary diversity which can greatly impact their development. They are missing out on an education as more families send their children to work. Without further support, this will have long term implications, leading to a lost generation.

A LIFE IN LIMBO: SYRIAN STORIES

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