Humanitarian Bulletin Syria Crisis December 2014 - January 2015

Another year has passed in Syria, with no end in sight of the conflict. The suffering of more than four million Syrian women and girls of reproductive age, of which half a million are pregnant, continues. Women have become more vulnerable to exploitation as they are socially, psychologically and economically insecure. Many are at risk of not having access to safe deliveries, or emergency obstetric care, because of shortages of qualified staff, lack of supplies and medicines or equipped facilities, and difficulties in access.

Millions of people have been displaced by violence in Syria, carrying the psychological marks of the trauma that they lived through in their country and during their escape; hundreds of thousands have been killed and the entire region has been destabilized as conflict and instability have spread to Iraq, Lebanon and beyond.

The United Nations has called on the international community to substantially increase its funding for housing, food, health care and the basic needs for refugees to minimize their vulnerability and to maintain a minimum level of support and dignity. The United Nations continues to advocate for those who remain inside Syria under extremely hazardous conditions to not be left alone to their fate. During the month of December, the United Nations agencies launched two major strategic plans, requesting over $8.4 billion to help nearly 18 million people in Syria and throughout the region. The Syria Strategic Response Plan 2015 (SRP) would require $2.9 billion in funding to address acute humanitarian needs inside Syria, aiming to provide 12.2 million people with protection, life-saving assistance and livelihood support. The Regional Refugee and Resilience response Plan (3RP) is asking for $5.5 billion in funding to support the emergency humanitarian operations in refugee-hosting countries as well as to provide host community support with longer-term programmes aimed at boosting economic and social resilience.

In order to ensure long-term humanitarian relief and help Syrians in hard-to-reach areas who are trapped behind borders, the United Nations Security Council renewed for twelve months its authorization to use routes across conflict lines as well as specified border crossings, with notification to the Syrian authorities, through the unanimous adoption of resolution 2191 (2014).