UNHCR Syria: Enhancing Resilience and Self-Reliance in Communities - End of Year Report 2017

Marking its 7th year in 2017, the Syria crisis has, unfortunately, continued to be the world’s largest displacement crisis. Last year, some 6.1 million people were internally displaced, many for multiple times, while 13.1 million people remained in need of humanitarian assistance. Additionally, more than five million Syrian refugees were registered with UNHCR and governments in the region. Causing immense suffering, large-scale destruction, and continuing to drive people out of their homes, the crisis has taken a severe toll on the Syrian people. UNHCR teams in Syria stayed the course during the country’s most difficult years and extended their support to the most vulnerable. UNHCR expanded its operations as new areas opened up for humanitarian access, starting with eastern Aleppo at the start of the year and continuing to the east with the opening of a road linking Aleppo with Hassakeh Governorate, boosting the delivery of aid supplies to Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zor, as these emergencies unfolded. Playing a major role in interagency coordination, UNHCR continued to lead three sectors out of eleven activated in Damascus (Protection and Community Services, NFIs and Shelter), thereby contributing to the objectives of the UN-coordinated Humanitarian Response Plan, namely to save lives, protect civilians and increase the resilience of the Syrian people.

In 2017, UNHCR delivered 2.6 million protection and community services interventions, distributed core relief items to 3.5 million beneficiaries, and improved shelter living conditions to over 482,340 people. Notably, as part of its emergency response, UNHCR participated in 16 cross-line interagency convoys bringing much-needed aid supplies to thousands of people living in very precarious conditions with little or no access at all to food, medicines and other basic commodities. These lifeline missions were conducted in exceptionally difficult circumstances to alleviate the suffering of civilians trapped in hard-to-reach and besieged areas.