Attachments
Highlights
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UNICEF reached over 12.5 million people in 2022, including 3.9 million boys and 4.3 million girls. Families in the most severely affected and inaccessible areas were prioritized, with 220,000 people reached in difficult to access areas (45 per cent of this population) and 4.4 million in moderately accessible areas (63 per cent of this population).
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A cholera outbreak saw 70,220 cases reported by the end of the year (including 98 deaths). UNICEF and partners actively coordinated the cholera response, holding lead roles on WASH and Risk Communication and Community Engagement through the incident management teams in Amman (Whole of Syria level), Damascus and Gaziantep as well as contributing to the Case Management Pillar and co-leading the Operations, Supply and Logistics pillar. UNICEF procured 2 million doses of oral cholera vaccine used to vaccinate 1.9 million people in Aleppo, Deir- ez-Zour, Al-Hasakeh and Ar-Raqqa as well as providing supplies to 52 treatment centres to treat 11,700 severe cholera cases.
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In 2022, UNICEF requires $334,430,071 to provide life-saving assistance to 9.1 million people (including 5.5 million children) across Syria according to the Humanitarian Action for Children. $170,561,851 has been made available so far, leaving a $163,868,221 (51 per cent) gap.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Cholera: A cholera/AWD outbreak was declared on 10 September, and quickly spread across the country threatening children, especially in crowded informal settlements. Across Syria, 70,220 cases were reported by the end of the year (including 98 deaths).2 The outbreak is associated with the large-scale destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, electricity outages and prolonged drought as well as population movements.
COVID-19: From the beginning of the outbreak to date, 200,776 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Syria including 7,246 deaths. Of these cases, 104,160 cases were reported from north-west Syria (NW Syria) and 39,258 from north-east Syria (NE Syria).
Socio-economic situation: Ninety per cent of families live in poverty and 55 per cent are food insecure. The national average price of WFP’s standard reference food basket in October 2022 was SYP 357,593 ($119 at the official exchange rate of SYP 3,015), 91 per cent higher than October 2021. The Syrian Pound continued to lose value against the US Dollar with the informal market reaching SYP 5,069 (the official exchange rate being SYP 3,015).
NW Syria: Of a population of 4.6 million, 4.1 million people in NW Syria are in need of assistance including 3.3 million who are food insecure and 2.9 million IDPs. Armed incidents were regularly reported in frontline areas, causing civilian casualties and temporarily suspending humanitarian activities. On 12 July 2022, the Security Council extended the use of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing for humanitarian aid for six months, extending it again on 9 January 2023 for six months.8 In 2022, in addition to its programming work, UNICEF delivered 72 trucks cross-border carrying $7 million worth of supplies and reached 1,865,000 people in NW Syria. Supplies provided through five crossline convoys to NW Syria benefited 76,480 people.
Al-Hol and other camps in NE Syria: There are 53,000 IDPs living in Al-Hol (64 per cent children) and 2,500 in Al-Roj (66 per cent children) Camps. Of the 35,000 children living in these detention-like camps, 12,000 are Syrians, 16,200 are Iraqis and 6,800 are from 60 other nationalities. UNICEF provided extensive support in 2022 to the people in the camps, specifically for children and their mothers. During the year, 405 third-country national women and children have been repatriated, 2,367 Iraqis have voluntarily returned to Iraq and 564 Syrian IDPs have gone back to their place of origin. UNICEF continued its integrated Health and Nutrition, Education, WASH, Child Protection and Adolescent Development and Participation programming in Al-Hol, along with independent third-party monitoring, despite the unstable security situation. In 2022, there were 37 incidents of murder or attempted murder in the camp.
Alouk Water Station: Alouk water station was out of service for 128 days in 2022, with 54 days of only partial service. Since the end of 2019, over 460,000 people in Al Hasakeh City and surrounding areas, and an additional half million in NE Syria, have been intermittently deprived of safe drinking water due to these interruptions. Travel by the operations and maintenance team from Al-Hasakeh to Alouk has been denied frequently since October 2019. The last such denial continued from 22 August 2022 up to end of year. UNICEF led the development of a concept note for establishing a UN-led monitoring mechanism to ensure uninterrupted services, and to provide maintenance support as required, which is currently under discussion.
Al-Bab water station: The Ein El Bayda water station stopped functioning in 2017, affecting access to water for 148,000 people in Al-Bab Sub-District. UNICEF provides operations and maintenance support for the 17 available low-yield boreholes in the area; however, they supply only 35 litres of water per person per day. UNICEF also installed an additional borehole. Most families need to supplement their water through unsafe water trucking. The Syrian Recovery Trust Fund is supporting the on-going solarization of these boreholes, which should be completed by early 2023. UNICEF conducted a field assessment for the repair and rehabilitation of Ein El Bayda water station based on approval obtained from the Government of Syria and finalized the technical assessment and the bill of quantities. UNICEF will repair and rehabilitate the station once approval is obtained and the required funding become available.
Rukban: An estimated 8,000 people still live in Rukban on the Syrian-Jordanian border. Despite on-going advocacy efforts, the last crossline mission to Rukban was in 2019. UNICEF supported families arriving from Rukban, both at the transit centre and their secondary destinations. At the transit centre, 24 children were screened for malnutrition; 1 was identified with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and began treatment. In their secondary destinations, 1,579 children were screened and 34 children with MAM and 5 with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) treated. Sixty-nine children were vaccinated and hygiene supplies provided for 78 families in transit. Supportive learning is provided for 537 children returning from Rukban in formal and non-formal settings, including 393 out-of-school children (140 females) in Al- Zuhouria; 27 of them (8 females) have returned to formal school. Meanwhile, 144 new arrivals (51 girls) are enrolled in the accelerated formal learning programme Curriculum B (CB) in various schools. Child protection interventions reached 1,130 children and caregivers while 1,280 adolescents and youths (590 girls) participated in life skills and sports for development activities.