Syria Annual Humanitarian Situation Report

Highlights

• The conflict in Syria continues to drive the largest refugee crisis in the world, with 5.4 million Syrian refugees registered in the region. Nearly half (48%) are children. About 92% of Syrian refugees live in host communities in very precarious living conditions. Depleted resources, the high cost of living and restricted livelihood opportunities are making it difficult for vulnerable families to meet their children’s basic needs. Many Syrian refugee families are forced to resort to negative coping practices, including early marriage and child labor.
   
• In line with the No Lost Generation Initiative, UNICEF supported national systems in Syria and in Syrian refugee host countries reaching over 773,000 children (98% target) with psychosocial support, and helped over 3.2 million children (88% target) to enroll in formal education. Children’s exclusion from education remains a serious problem. An estimated 1.75 million school aged children in Syria and over 40% of Syrian refugee children remain out-of-school. Key challenges include funding shortfalls, capacity of partners and families’ lack of livelihoods.
   
• With UNICEF support, more than 8.9 million children were vaccinated against polio in Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. In Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, over 6.8 million people had sustainable access to safe water through improved water supply systems, and 1.8 million people benefitted from temporary water provision.
   
• The conflict in Syria continues to take a devastating toll on the lives of children. In 2017, the United Nations verified 2,909 grave violations against children (including 119 and 89 attacks on hospitals and schools respectively). February, March and April 2017 recorded the highest grave violations with 350+ cases verified for each.
   
• UNICEF has launched the humanitarian appeal for 2018 in Syria and for Syrian Refugees for 2018 and 2019 in host countries. The total for both appeals in 2018 is US$1.3 billion and 894.3 million for the 2019 appeal for Syrian refugees. With enough funding, UNICEF hopes to reach 10.8 million people, including 6.9 million children (the overall target does not include polio) with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey.

Situation in Numbers

In Syria:

6 million children out of 13,500,000 people affected _{(HNO, 2017)}

Outside Syria:

Nearly 3 million (2,614,501) registered Syria refugee children out of more than 5.4 million (5,481,135) registered Syrian refugees _{(UNHCR, 14 January 2018)}

UNICEF Appeal 2017

US$1,398 Billion

Funding Status

US$ 1,145 Billion 

Author

UNICEF Syria

Publication date

January 2018

Languages

English