Syrian Arab Republic Appeal

The enduring effects of 14 years of conflict and instability will continue to shape the lives of Syrian children and women in 2026. While the change in authorities in December 2024 brought cautious optimism, intermittent violence, localized escalations and regional tensions persisted, deepening humanitarian needs. Damaged infrastructure, limited services and restricted access – often due to insecurity – remained major barriers to delivering essential support to vulnerable communities. With only 1 per cent economic growth expected in 2025, extreme poverty affects one in four Syrians, and two thirds live below the lower middle-income poverty line. 

Displacement remained widespread despite substantial returns in 2025. An estimated 6.2 million people remain internally displaced, 1.4 million in camps and 4.8 million outside camps. Since November 2024, more than 890,000 people have been newly displaced. At the same time, around 1.9 million internally displaced persons – including 1.1 million children – and approximately 1.1 million Syrian refugees, including 627,000 children, have returned to their areas of origin or other locations. Internally displaced and refugee returnees are resettling in areas where basic services are already overstretched, minimal, or severely damaged. These populations – particularly children – remain among the most vulnerable due to limited access to education, healthcare and livelihoods. 

Explosive ordnance contamination poses a serious threat, with 760 incidents causing 1,419 casualties since December 2024, with 155 children killed and 359 injured. Children comprise nearly two thirds of all civilian casualties. These hazards hinder access to education, safe spaces and essential services, while affecting psychosocial well-being. 

The health system remains under-resourced and overwhelmed, with only 57 per cent of hospitals and 37 per cent of primary healthcare centres fully functional. Sporadic violence and limited access continue to disrupt health and nutrition services. An estimated 14.6 million people are food insecure, including 600,000 children under age 5 suffering from wasting (177,000 of them severely wasted). With rainfall at just 54 per cent of the average, the country is experiencing its worst drought-like conditions in 36 years, affecting 8.5 million people, including 1.8 million who are severely affected. Water scarcity, poor sanitation and hygiene gaps are contributing to waterborne diseases, leishmaniasis and rising malnutrition.

Access to safe and inclusive learning environments remains limited. More than 2.5 million children are out of school, and nearly 8,000 schools require urgent rehabilitation. Overcrowded classrooms, inadequate WASH facilities, lack of learning materials and a shortage of trained teachers continue to hinder learning and reintegration – especially for returnee children.

Protection risks, mental health needs, violence against children and gender-based violence and limited access to services persist, particularly for children and women. Sustained, coordinated humanitarian action remains essential to upholding children’s rights, ensuring access to life-saving services, supporting recovery and building resilience.

UNICEF will continue to respond to the immediate, severe and protracted humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations in the Syrian Arab Republic, guided by its core mandate to protect the rights of every child. Through the One Syria approach, the response will focus on life-saving and protection interventions, ensuring equitable access to services based on vulnerability. This includes support for internally displaced persons, returning internally displaced persons and refugees and host communities. UNICEF will maintain a leadership role in humanitarian coordination in the nutrition, education and WASH sectors, while actively engaging with the protection sector to protect children. 

UNICEF’s response is guided by the humanitarian–development–peace nexus, with a strong focus on resilience-building, system strengthening and strategic engagement with national partners to ensure sustainability and inclusive service delivery. This will be achieved through strong partnerships with government, youth groups, civil society, women-led organizations, humanitarian actors and communities. UNICEF will enhance resilience through decentralized programming, efficient resource use, effective communication and advocacy, along with system strengthening at national, subnational and community levels. Efforts to engage line ministries and government counterparts to support a gradual transition to national ownership align with the interim Government of Syria’s recovery initiatives. 

UNICEF will engage in programming across sectors, promoting risk-informed, conflict-sensitive, child-centred and gender-responsive approaches; protecting children – including children with disabilities – against violence; and paving the way for transformative and sustainable results, including through preparedness actions.

UNICEF health interventions will ensure the continuity of safe, equitable and life-saving quality primary healthcare and support secondary care for mothers, newborns and children through outreach, capacity enhancement, community engagement, restoration of local health systems and vaccination. Using the life-cycle approach, UNICEF will support the most vulnerable children and women through high-impact preventive and curative nutrition interventions. 

The WASH programme will focus on emergency and system-level interventions to ensure equitable access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. It will support drought mitigation through climate-resilient water resource management, restoration of key infrastructure and sanitation and hygiene support. Education interventions will apply a life-cycle approach to support inclusive access to quality formal and non-formal education, focusing on the reintegration of returnees, school rehabilitation and strengthening institutional capacity. Child protection efforts will address abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence through mental health support and positive parenting programmes, complemented by explosive ordnance risk education to enhance children’s safety. 

Shock-responsive social protection and humanitarian cash assistance will help vulnerable families meet urgent needs while supporting children’s nutrition, well-being and protection. 

UNICEF will empower adolescents through safe, meaningful engagement and resilience-building. Social and behavioural change approaches will foster trust, demand for services and people-centred community engagement. UNICEF will strengthen data-driven and evidence-based programmes, mainstreaming protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and accountability to affected populations.