Total affected population: 4.69 million
Total affected children (under 18): 2.4 million
Total people to be reached in 2016: 2.7 million
Total children to be reached in 2016: 1.4 million
2016 programme targets
Turkey
- 400,000 children accessed formal education through direct support and systems strengthening
- 80,000 children provided access to child protection or psychosocial support services
- 30,000 households received emergency cash or cash vouchers
Lebanon
- 233,000 children supported to enrol in formal education
- 185,000 children provided access to child protection or psychosocial support services
- 940,000 people reached with sustainable water provision
- 191,000 vulnerable families received monthly cash assistance
Jordan
- 156,000 children supported to enrol in formal education
- 218,000 children participating in structured, sustained child protection or psychosocial services
- 750,000 people reached with sustainable water provision
- 17,500 vulnerable families received monthly cash assistance
Iraq
- 50,000 children supported to enrol in formal education
- 45,000 children participating in structured, sustained child protection or psychosocial services
- 86,000 people reached with potable water in refugee camps
- 4,600 households received emergency cash or cash vouchers
Egypt
- 15,000 children supported to enrol in formal education
- 20,000 children provided access to child protection or psychosocial support services
- 30,000 vulnerable families received monthly cash assistance
- More than 15.4 million children vaccinated against polio across all 3RP countries
Syrian refugees and other affected populations in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Five years into the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, the situation is only becoming more severe and there are no signs that the conflict is abating. As of November 2015, 10.8 million Syrians were internally displaced or had become refugees, including the more than 4.3 million Syrian refugees now living in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Children make up more than 51 per cent of the refugee population. Turkey is now hosting 2.1 million Syrian refugees, Lebanon is hosting nearly 1.1 million and Jordan is hosting 630,000. The conflict in Iraq has further compounded the Syrian refugee crisis, with 3.2 million Iraqis displaced within Iraq since January 2014. Many of the 245,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq are located in the same geographical area as internally displaced Iraqis, placing a major burden on host communities and services. The number of Syrian refugees across the sub-region is expected to rise to 4.69 million by the end of 2016. The scale and protracted nature of the Syrian crisis is challenging the ability of host governments and the international community to meet the continuing need for essential life-saving humanitarian assistance.
Humanitarian strategy
In 2016, under the inter-agency Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), humanitarian response will be combined with efforts to build the medium- and long-term resilience of affected individuals, households, communities and institutions in refugee hosting countries. UNICEF is supporting the coordination of the No Lost Generation initiative to scale up and improve the quality of education, child protection and youth/adolescent programming across the five countries. UNICEF is also implementing strategies to increase the supply of and access to services; improve service quality; increase demand and address barriers to access; and advocate for legal and policy reforms to strengthen national education and child protection services. UNICEF is promoting access to quality education to reduce the number of out-of-school children and provide young people with life skills, while also supporting services for the most vulnerable children and youth at the community level. Dedicated youth programmes such as civic engagement and livelihood opportunities will also be promoted. In WASH, UNICEF is supporting the ongoing transition from emergency services to more sustainable cost-effective systems, including the replacement of water tankering with piped water networks, which will benefit refugees and host communities. UNICEF will also strengthen national capacities, including by augmenting existing water, sewage and waste collection systems and building capacity on tariffs and regulatory frameworks. The WASH sector will continue to work on preventing and responding to disease outbreaks. In health and nutrition, UNICEF will promote public health through vaccination campaigns, including against polio and measles, as well as by reinforcing routine immunization services. Given the escalating vulnerabilities among refugees, UNICEF will reinforce nutritional screening and the provision of micronutrients and nutritional supplements, in particular for the most vulnerable children, youth and their families across the region. Programmes will be delivered in coordination with the operations described in the separate Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeals for the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq and the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe.
Results from 2015
As of 31 October 2015, UNICEF had received 73 per cent (US$454.8 million) of the US$624.3 million appeal, in addition to US$138.6 million carried forward from 2014. In 2015, UNICEF scaled up the programmatic response under the No Lost Generation initiative. UNICEF education programmes reached more than 506,000 children, including 442,000 children with access to formal education and 63,000 children with access to non-formal education. UNICEF also supported education advocacy to overcome legal, policy and language barriers that hinder child and youth access to education. In child protection, UNICEF promoted the expansion of community-based services beyond psychosocial support to reach more children with a broader range of interventions. A package of integrated services is being offered in social development centres in Lebanon and development centres in Lebanon and Makani centres in Jordan. In refugee camps in Iraq and Jordan, UNICEF invested in reducing the costs of providing WASH services by transitioning from expensive emergency mechanisms such as water trucking to more cost-effective service delivery. UNICEF continued to scale up the provision of WASH services in host communities in Jordan and Lebanon. Across the region, UNICEF continued to support polio immunization to ensure that that the Middle East remains polio free and responded to disease outbreaks, including cholera in Iraq and hepatitis A in Jordan. UNICEF provided 332,000 children in vulnerable families and vulnerable areas with cash or seasonal clothes and materials to meet their basic needs. The winter needs of most vulnerable families were addressed across the region through the provision of cash grants, winter clothing and blankets.