Background
Since March 2011, the humanitarian situation in Syria has further deteriorated with increasing needs and number of people affected in all 14 governorates Therefore, continuous identification of humanitarian needs to inform a scale-up of response is critical both at sectoral and multi-sectoral level;. Although broad humanitarian needs in Syria have been identified, there is a need for more disaggregated data and to have an overview of needs and vulnerability nationwide, in particular to monitor the evolving severity of the humanitarian crisis.
This document provides an overview on needs assessment work in Syria Crisis with following components:
Assessment Products
Profiling of refugees in neighboring countries to assess area of origin
Joint Humanitarian Assessment within Syria
Coordination Structures
1. Assessment Products
There are two assessment products currently produced for the Syria Crisis: the Humanitarian Dashboard and the Humanitarian Needs Overview.
a. Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO)
- First version (18th January 2013): OCHA collected inputs from sectors / agencies in Amman and produced a first version of the HNO on 18th January 2013. In this regard, a number of meetings were held with UN agencies in Amman to collect information on priority sector needs, response and situational overview. The final version of the HNO was shared during Emergency Directors meeting in Amman (Jan 2013). Second version (26th April 2013): The second version of the HNO was published on 26th April 2013, after extensive consultations and input of UN sector lead agencies both in Amman and in Damascus. The second version of the HNO created the basis for the needs analysis included in the 2013 Revised SHARP. This HNO version was published and circulated to wider audience.
b. Humanitarian Dashboard
Since November 2012, the Syria Dashboard is being updated on monthly basis with contributions from respective sectors. It covers key figures on SHARP funding, people in need, people targeted and reached for every sector
- Lack of access within Syria led OCHA and its partners to seek alternative means of generating information on needs. One effort was focused on expanding the Jordan refugee profiling exercise to include data gathering from other countries in the region. OCHA, with UNHCR, organized a planning meeting to design an approach for expanding the Jordan refugee profiling exercise, in Amman, Jordan on 14-15 January 2013. Additional partners were asked to participate to provide technical expertise and input into the planning. These included UNICEF, WFP, including the VAM unit, the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) and ACTED- the NGO providing profiling services on behalf of UNICEF and UNHCR in Jordan and Iraq. The objective of the meeting was to agree on a way forward to conduct place of origin assessments with refugee communities in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in order to collect detailed information on humanitarian needs within Syria. The recommendation of the group was to refer to the project as “Refugee Place of Origin Perception Assessments”. UNHCR decided not to pursue this assessment approach due to other priorities at the time and the high cost of implementation.