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NATIONAL SOCIETY PROFILE
Founded in 1942, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is a leading humanitarian agency within Syria. It has a network of 14 branches, one in each of the country’s governorates, and 70 active sub-branches. The National Society is renowned for taking a neutral and principled role in the Syrian conflict, enabling it to provide life-saving assistance to millions of Syrians. As mandated by the Syrian Government in 2008, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent acts as Syria’s national coordinator for humanitarian aid.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent proactively responds to humanitarian and development needs, and steers organizational transitioning to prevent or mitigate harm from future crises. In 2022, almost half a million people were reached through emergency response, 3.3 million people benefitted from medical services provided by the National Society’s health facilities, 5.7 million people received food assistance, 5.5 million people were provided with households essentials, over 215,000 were supported with livelihoods projects, and over 55,000 with cash and voucher assistance. It is estimated that 80% of the population benefit from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent’s water rehabilitation services. The National Society prioritizes people with specific vulnerabilities, including female-headed households and people with special needs.
The National Society’s Strategic Plan 2023-2027 identifies three strategic goals and one organizational goal:
• Build community resilience for rapid response and recovery to lessen the impacts of all types of disasters and crises
• Enable communities to lead health and safe lives for physical and mental well-being
• Contribute to reducing vulnerability, social inclusion, and building a safer society to promote positive change for humanity
• Operate effectively as the leading humanitarian actor with enhanced organizational capacity and be future ready
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent is responding to a significant decline in funding for the Syrian crisis and the decision by many organizations to reshape their responses from relief to resilience-building approaches. This has required the National Society to develop greater insight, agility and flexibility.
The development phase of the Strategic Plan 2023–2027 successfully guided this transformation, delivering more agile management and operational structures and more responsive methods to reach those in the country’s most vulnerable and hard-to-reach parts.