Syria Humanitarian Fund: Reserve Allocation Strategy, Round 1 (2023)

Section 1: Strategic Statement

The 12 years protracted Syrian humanitarian crisis was exacerbated by the devastating earthquake which struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February 2023, causing massive destruction of the residential buildings and basic services infrastructure and thousands of injuries and deaths and forcing tens of thousands to displace their homes. The destruction has compounded the pre-existing large scale humanitarian needs, logistical and access constraints to certain areas, winter conditions and an ongoing cholera outbreak.

In line with the Syria earthquake flash appeal, the first reserve allocation aims to support immediate actions to mitigate the life threatening risk of further collapse of buildings through supporting scale-up of structural safety assessment for buildings in affected geographical areas by the earthquake; and provide life-saving Shelter and protection assistance to the population most affected by the earthquake, through life-saving Shelter support to people whose houses have been destroyed/ damaged by the earthquake; and provide life-sustaining shelter support to people whose houses have been damaged by the earthquake, with protection assistance focusing on Housing, Land and Property (HLP) documentation issues to enhance access to HLP documents and secure HLP rights of the affected population.

This allocation is line with the HC’s vision for the strategic use of the Fund to support critical life-saving assistance. It supports localization through engagement with local capacities as well as engineering expertise to conduct the assessments well as in provision of shelter and protection assistance. This will also complement ongoing SHF efforts to support immediate humanitarian assistance (food, NFI WASH, heath, and protection) for the population most affected by the earthquake, through costs extensions to the SHF ongoing projects to a value of approximately US$ 5 million.