In reaction to the pledges made today at the Brussels conference on Syria, Oxfam in Syria Country Director, Moutaz Adham, said:
“The pledges made today are welcomed and show that the international community has not forgotten Syrians.
“However, donor’s priorities do not reflect the situation in Syria. For over a decade, there has been too much focus on emergency aid with limited focus on long term solutions to problems like lack of food and water. What the Syrian people need is schools and hospitals, homes that can stand and are cleared of rubble and old bombs, and jobs, so they can feed their families and stop relying on aid. Humanitarian agencies haven’t been able to provide for the long term needs of Syrians due to political considerations. These politics are denying Syrians a future and causing more Syrians to mire in poverty.
“Syrians have never been so hungry – 3 in 5 people do not know where their next meal will come from. One month’s living costs equals two months’ salary. The war in Ukraine will only increase hunger and poverty.
“Last year, donors only gave half the money needed to help people in Syria. Syrians cannot afford for this to happen yet again this year. Donors need to think long-term. Short-term solutions are not good enough.”
Notes to the editors
Read Oxfam’s media briefing on the Ukraine crisis: How and why it could cause hunger crises globally to worsen which includes a case-study on Syria.
Read Oxfam in Syria’s recent press release “Before we feared dying of war, now we fear dying of hunger”: Ukraine crisis propelling hunger in Syria.
Last year’s Humanitarian Response Plan, aimed at providing critical assistance to people in need in Syria was only 46 percent funded.
Oxfam is working in Syria and with Syrians in neighbouring countries and the communities hosting them since 2013. We make sure people have clean water, distribute cash so people can put food on the table and buy life-saving medicine, and support farmers to start farming again by giving out seeds and doing trainings and bakers to start baking again through rehabilitating old bakeries.
