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Syria UN Strategic Framework (2016-2017) DRAFT End-Year Review

January – December 2016

1. Background

The United Nations Strategic Framework (UNSF) for The Syrian Arab Republic 2016-2017 was signed by the Government of Syria and the United Nations in February 2016. The Framework aims to support building the resilience and improving the lives of the people of Syria, particularly the most vulnerable. The Strategic Framework has identified three broad priority areas: Strategic Framework Focus Area 1: Capacity development and support for institutions. Outcome 1: Target institutions have mechanisms to develop, implement and monitor evidence-based policies, strategies, plans and resilience programmes. Strategic Framework Focus Area 2: Restoring and expanding more responsive essential services and infrastructure. Outcome 2: Basic and social services and infrastructure restored, improved and sustained to enhance community resilience. Strategic Framework Focus Area 3: Improving socio-economic resilience of the Syrian people. Outcome 3: Households and communities benefit from sustainable livelihood opportunities, including economic recovery and social inclusion. The Strategic Framework focuses on a number of key targets that will make a difference to Syria’s ability to turn the dividends of humanitarian action into sustainable crisis recovery, resilience building and potential longer-term opportunities.

2. End-Year Review

The PMT decided to undertake an End-Year Review of the UN Strategic Framework, following the same methodology used for Mid-Year Review. The aim is to assess progress in implementation, identifying achievements to December 2016, and reflect on the lessons and priorities for 2017. The findings and figures presented in this report are tentative and they will be updated and validated by each Pillar Group in early 2017.

As mentioned in the Mid-Year Review report, for the majority of UNSF targets, there is an overlap with the HRP (i.e. the same interventions and targets are included in both the HRP and UNSF). Therefore, some of the achievements reported against the UNSF have also been reported in the HRP Periodic Monitoring Report and were achieved using funding channeled through the HRP. This overlap in targets and interventions will be further analyzed during the mid-term review of the UNSF.

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During the reporting period, the Monitoring & Evaluation Technical Working Group has further analyzed the overlap HRP/UNSF funding through an HRP/UNSF budget mapping exercise, to develop an estimate of the funding that was dedicated entirely to UNSF activities (section 5 ‘Funding Mapping’).

3. UNSF Lessons Learnt

The UNSF provides a coherent vision and a stronger push for a resilience-focused agenda for Syria. This vision has also been further translated into agency-specific interventions that support the wider UN agenda. This approach has contributed to leverage additional funding and interest by external donors and other actors keen to support affected people in Syria.

The UNSF enhanced the inter-agency collaboration in certain areas. For example: UNICEF and WFP shared programmatic information on target locations and schools in advance of the nationwide ‘Back to Learning’ initiative. These coordinated efforts resulted in many children benefitting from UNICEF’s education supplies and WFP’s school feeding programme in the new school year.

Investments in diversifying and/or providing alternative water supply sources to enhance durable solutions worked very well particularly in the emergency situation in Aleppo, Rural Damascus and Hama Governorates.

The deteriorating security situation and subsequent access challenges to areas needing support has reinforced the important role of local partners (NOGs, CBOs, FBOs, local committees, etc…). Working through local partners, building their capacity, acknowledging and enhancing their role as service providers; are key factors in achieving UNSF results. For example, WFP has developed a robust beneficiary targeting and selection tool to assist partners in targeting the most vulnerable households.

The UNSF prioritizes strengthening of data collection to inform and monitor national policies and strategies. For example WFP developed evidence-based programme choices and delivery modalities based on rigorous assessments and monitoring data, which include context and gender analysis and establish priorities for interventions.

The UNSF brings the opportunity for the UN agencies to provide capacity development to partners, in particularly to support partners in adapting the resilience planning and formulating strategies, plans and programmes based on resilience approach using participatory planning manner. FAO has established technical working groups to build the resilience of the agriculture sector to crisis and shocks, with the membership of all stakeholders in the sector, the technical working groups are used as planning tool for rural areas.

The three Pillar Groups need to be more active and further engage with partners, particularly Government counterparts and INGOs. The pillar groups are responsible to ensure agency implementation and roll-out UNSF process.

Noting the UNSF reporting challenges for 2016, the Pillar Groups need to strengthen the workplanning exercise in 2017 with clear deliverables that can be used as the bases for reporting. Due to each Pillar Groups has been tasked to develop 2017 Work plan.

Continued reflection is needed on the complementarity between the HRP and UNSF and how the two can reinforce each other in a way that maximizes efficiencies and minimizes duplication.

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4. Key Achievements

a) Pillar 1: Capacity development and support Institutions

Under Outcome 1 of the UN Strategic Framework, several UN agencies (UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, WFP, WHO and UNHCR) initiated discussions and preliminary work to support a socio-demographic survey to be carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), possibly in 2017. Such a nationwide socio-demographic survey would provide data on the socio demographic situation of the population and will facilitate the programing and planning of initiatives. More precisely, the survey aims at providing the Government of Syria and all key partners with reliable evidence-based information which will support planning, programming and policy development in many different sectors.

WHO strengthened the national platform for health information management in terms of quality and quantity of information on the availability of health resources and services, accessibility, infrastructure, the burden of disease trends and the impact on the health system, mechanism of data collection, capacity, and information products. This has been achieved through institutionalizing health information system nationwide for emergency response (HeRAMS); WHO has established a nationwide disease surveillance system, with more than 1112 sentinel sites, to detect and respond to outbreak alerts. The national nutrition surveillance system was also supported integrating nutrition surveillance in 445 health centres. During 2016, WHO published an assessment on the status of secondary care in Syria, in addition to conducting a rapid needs assessment of cancer care management in Syria to determine current status, challenges and priorities for support within the current context. WHO also implemented the sero-prevalence survey of hepatitis B&C among selected groups with 21 858 samples collected and tested. Findings of the study were disseminated to be the basis for developing the national control strategy. WHO also conducted a need assessment for physical rehabilitation provision. As a result, a one-year plan of action was developed to fill the large gap in the provision of physical rehabilitation services for disabled people across Syria. WHO has also improved national health capacity through country cooperation strategy and humanitarian response plan through training over 17,800 health workers on health related topics at primary, secondary and tertiary health care levels, including health assessment, disease surveillance, trauma and disease management protocols, and emergency preparedness and response.

UNICEF supported a comprehensive nutrition assessment across 11 governorates, using a globally standardized methodology to provide up-to-date information on the status, caseload and geographical needs, contributing to evidence-based programming of early detection, treatment and referral of malnourished children. In addition, an analysis of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) for the 2015/16 school year was conducted and shared with the education sector partners. This contributed to strengthening evidence-informed response planning at the sector level. Furthermore, UNICEF, UNDP and WHO together with MOSAL, CBS and SCFA initiated preparations to conduct a national disability study in 2017.

UNICEF and UNRWA jointly supported GAPAR (General Administration for Palestine Arab Refugees) and PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) to conduct a national 2016 Situation Assessment of Palestinian Refugees in Syria. This comprehensive survey provides up-to-date information on a broad range of indicators with a specific focus on Palestinian children and women: health, nutrition, education, WASH, child protection and other areas. The survey findings will help plan key interventions by national and international partners to support Palestinian families living in Syria.

Furthermore, UNICEF provided key support to the development of several national policies and strategies including the Policy on Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV), the Strategy on Integrated

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Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), and National Guidelines on Psycho-social Support (PSS). Support was also provided to the development of a model of integrated social services through Case Management, addressed to managers of Social Affairs departments and to social workers, including a training package launched at the foundational training in November 2016.

FAO has supported the capacity-building effort for data collection of the national institutions responsible for agriculture (represented by National Agriculture Policy Centre in the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MAAR)). This effort has mainly been channeled through the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) 2016, done in collaboration with WFP, and the Agriculture Damage Needs Assessment (ADNA). The CFSAM was completed and the report published in November (http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6445e.pdf), while the ADNA data collection, review and validation processes have been completed and the report will be published in early 2017. The information generated from these assessments provides a detailed analysis of the food supply and demand dynamics based on the performance of the 2015/2016 agricultural season as well as other food supply mechanisms, and therefore serves the multiple role of monitoring, resilience planning and guiding policy formulation.

Since damage to infrastructure has reduced the previously irrigated crop area by about 50 percent, water for production has become a key limiting factor to household and national food supply and therefore requires urgent interventions implemented in a comprehensive approach that includes sustainable management of water resources (watersheds, basins, catchments and reservoirs), renewable energy-based and low-cost abstraction and distribution technologies, and promotion of water-use efficiency. Due to this situation, the Ministry of Water has request to UN system support. A Technical Working Group for Water and Soil Management was established by the FAO to coordinate all irrigation work between the Ministry of water resources as a co-leader and other group members from the UN, other organizations and water related Ministries as partners.

UN-Habitat developed a Municipal and Neighbourhood Planning Approach that includes technical support, evidence based planning, community led prioritisation of activities, and coordination of different actors. Furthermore, UN-Habitat supported to MOLAE and municipalities collect and analyse data on key municipal functions (infrastructure and services) and to identify strategic priorities to support the return of IDPs and recovery of cities. In 12 locations, municipalities were able to develop evidence based municipal and neighbourhood action plans. Gap analysis, with relevant ministries, of the regulatory and legal framework that relate to UN Habitat’s activities in municipal and urban planning, infrastructure, shelter, and urban economic recovery. Technical and policy support allowed relevant ministries to update specific regulations to better respond to the current needs and priorities in Syrian cities. Institutional capacity assessments with relevant ministries, governorates, and municipalities to identify the level of capacity to support the return of IDPs and recovery of crisis-affected cities. A national Municipality and Neighbourbood Planning training programme to build the capacity of municipalities to better plan and identify priorities – using participatory processes - was launched in 12 municipalities.

UNHCR, in cooperation with the local judiciary and protection partners, a workshop on legal mediation was carried out, where 136 legal professionals from across the country participated. In support of the work of the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) in providing civil status and HLP-related documentation to its citizens; and in support of Syrian citizens obtaining vital civil documentation from the responsible authorities, UNHCR concluded an Exchange of Letters with the GoS on its technical support to the MoI, providing it with furnishings and IT equipment to rehabilitate and

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enhance its civil affairs infrastructure; and provided legal counselling, awareness-raising and legal interventions, benefitting ca. 60.000 individuals with their civil documentation needs. On Housing, land and Property rights matters, a technical working group was established, permitting for national and international shelter and protection actors (incl. UN agencies and I/N-NGOs) to coordinate their HLP assessments, needs, plans and interventions, whilst, as a group, being accountable to the PCSS and Shelter sectors.

UNFPA support the statistical entities through deployment needed technical support to assess their needs following 5 years of the crisis in the country. UNFPA also started the process of the procurement of IT equipment and tools to enhance the availability of data that can inform policy making process and monitoring of ongoing programs. Moreover, to enhance linkages and complementarity between the UNSF and HRP UNFPA deployed a consultant to provide needed inputs to the HNO/HRP to provide needed technical support on population issues and demographic trends. In support of data, UNFPA supported the completion of 2 operational researches on the status of RH facilities and the status and needs of IDPS in Homs. Moreover, covering 11 governorates covering five main research areas: youth health, education, employment and entrepreneurship, social cohesion and protection.

WFP participated/contributed in capacity-building effort for data collection of the national institutions responsible for food security and assessment. WFP participated in planning and preparation of socio-demographic survey to be carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in 2017. Main food security indicators was reviewed and included in the assessment. WFP supported the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in cooperation with the Syria Planning and International Cooperation Commission in the finalization of food security assessment Arabic report. Crop and Food Security Assessment (CFSAM) was conducted by WFP and FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform (MAAR) of the Syrian Government. The CFSAM assessed the crop and food security/supplies, identifying the causes and possible outcomes of the assessed situation, highlighting areas of surplus and deficits, and people in need of food assistance, if any.

b) Pillar 2: Restoring and expanding more responsive essential services and infrastructure

Output 2.1: Access to health and nutrition services

Syria remained polio free in 2016, with 2.4 million children under 5 immunized against polio with support of UNICEF and WHO. Through investments in routine immunization, just over 279,000 (58%) children under one year were reached with DPT3, some 372,000 (77%) reached with MMR, and 454,000 (95%) reached with BCG. Multi-antigen campaigns focusing on besieged and hard-to-reach areas were able to screen more than 1.7 million children under five. Of those screened, 1.3 million (75%) were up to date with their vaccination while some 444,000 (25%) defaulters were vaccinated.

With support from UNICEF over 1.6 million children and pregnant & lactating women benefitted from primary health care outpatient consultations.

UNICEF reached about 1 million beneficiaries with health supplies, including about half in hard-to-reach and besieged areas through cross-line deliveries.

The capacity of more than 8,000 health workers was strengthened with UNICEF support, enhancing the quality of PHC services.

WHO supported health care services for people in need across the country – including in hard-to-reach and besieged areas. Thus far in 2016, WHO and partners continued to support 13.5 million

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people in need within Syria, and delivered 9.5 million medical treatments throughout Syria, through both cross-line deliveries. Over one third of these supplies were delivered to hard-to-reach, opposition-controlled, and besieged areas.

WHO strengthened partnership with a network of 68 local NGO partners to provide health services, the functionality of over 45 public and NGO hospitals across the country through provision of medical equipment, and also the functionality of hospitals and health centres through the provision of over 20 generators.

WHO has supported the rehabilitation of 7 health facilities in Homs, Hama, and Damascus and the rehabilitation of 7 hospital water wells for water quality and access in Aleppo and Damascus.

UNRWA continued to operate 26 fixed health facilities including 15 health centers and 11 heath points and 1 mobile conducting an average of 80000 consultations per month. As of December 2016, ten collective shelters including the Damascus Training Centre continued to serve as temporary accommodation for 2480 internally displaced civilians. Furthermore, three rounds of food assistance were conducted reaching 257,495 refugees throughout Syria.

With UNICEF support just over 700,000 children and pregnant & lactating women were screened for malnutrition, and identified cases of moderate and severe malnutrition were treated.

WFP implemented a range of nutrition sensitive and nutrition specific activities to provide

assistance to nutritionally vulnerable beneficiary groups. The nutrition interventions included a

targeted nutrition activity to treat identified cases of acutely malnourished children 6-59 months

of age and pregnant and lactating women (PLW). The identified cases of moderate acute

malnutrition are treated with specialized nutritious foods appropriate for their nutritional needs.

The programme was implemented in sixty Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition

(CMAM) centers in targeted areas across the country, as well as through crossline support, in

cooperation with UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, while reaching 19,951 children and 1,055

PLW beneficiaries.

UNICEF provided about 570,000 children and women with micro-nutrients.

First draft of UNFPA strategy to integrate RH and GBV services was developed for implementation in 2017.

1,219 of health providers trained on RH aspects including EmOC and 820 midwives have been trained in different geographical areas.

85 Health facilities providing RH services supported with needed equipment, and medicines.

Building on the gained experience in crisis response and within its “Social Infrastructure Rehabilitation” Programme, UNDP expanded its partnership with UNFPA and WHO to insure an effective and complementary response in the health service delivery, an agreement was signed between UNDP and UNFPA targeting 7 health facilities in Homs and Hama governorates including around 100,000 – 200,000 persons who will have a better access to health services.

Output 2.2: Access to education

The UN’s interventions in education - focusing on quality, access, and institutional strengthening - contributed to an increase in school enrolment from 3.24 million children (60% of school-age population) in 2014/15 to 3.66 million children (68% of school-age children) in 2015/16. These efforts also resulted in a decrease in the number of out-of-school children from 2.12 million (40%) in 2014/15 to 1.75 million (32%) in 2015/16.

A total of 3 million children were supported with essential learning materials such as school bags, textbooks and stationary as part of the “Back to Learning Campaign”.

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Across the country 401 schools were rehabilitated and 324 extra pre-fabricated classrooms installed.

About 323,000 children are accessing alternative education programmes such as self-learning and Curriculum B (accelerated education).

Over 1.8 million children and adults reached with life-saving risk education on explosive remnants.

In collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education, WFP provided daily in-kind rations of 80 grams of fortified date bars to pre-primary and primary school children in approximately 500 schools. Milk was introduced in the second half of academic year. The key objective was to boost enrolment rates and incentivize regular attendance, while contributing to improve the nutrient intake of the children. The programme was implemented in 10 governorates, prioritizing schools in relatively safe areas with high concentration of internally displaced persons (IDPs), low food security indicators. To ensure the provision of a comprehensive education support package, WFP targeted schools already receiving UNICEF education support. In spite of supply chain and access challenges faced by the programme, over 485,000 children were reached through this programme in 2016.

In October 2016, WFP started to drop fortified date bars in support of the school snacks programme in Deir ez Zor city targeting 10,000 school children for one month in 15 primary schools.

In November 2016 WFP launched cash-based education support Programme was initiated in November to encourage children to return to education for put-of-school children. Under this programme, cash-based transfer for the value of USD 23 per child was offered to households who send their children to accelerated remedial learning courses supported by UNICEF. By the end of the year this activity had reached 393 children and their families.

In 2016, WFP has continued the initiative to have the fortified date bars used in the fortified school snacks programme produced locally. This initiative has positively impacted the local economy, led to increased employment, and also reduced the time required to obtain the date bars, though local production still amounts to only a small percentage of the overall needs for the programme. A second supplier was contracted in 2016, the total mt procured locally amounted to 253.41 mt.

An additional school operated by UNRWA was opened increasing the number to 45 schools. These are complemented by 56 afternoon shifts schools hosted in governmental facilities. The total number of schools is 101 and is still below the pre-crisis level of 118 schools. The current enrolment in the schools is 45,625 pupils (21,999 girls; 23,626 boys).

128,770 out-of-school children and adolescents benefited from alternative education programmes, including remedial and catch-up classes, accelerated learning programmes and summer camps, provided by UNHCR in community centers.

Output 2.3: Access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene practices

As a direct result of UN and partner investments in clean water, hygiene, and sanitation, there were no major disease outbreaks or water borne diseases in 2016.

UNICEF’s support to the provision of over 6,437 metric tons of water disinfectant ensured 14 million people had access to clean water through public water systems every month.

Almost 4 million people benefitted from the repair and rehabilitation of damaged water and sanitation systems.

UNICEF reached over 1.7 million people through life-saving WASH interventions including trucking of nearly 1.5 billion litres of water and provision over 5 million litres of fuel for generators to run water pumping stations.

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UNICEF supported rehabilitation of WASH facilities in IDP shelters, distributed WASH NFIs for over 800,000 people and delivered hygiene awareness to over 112,000 people.

UNICEF’s WASH in schools programme reached 607 schools benefiting over 290,000 children including by addressing the special needs of children with disabilities.

UN-Habitat supported to technical service departments (WASH, Solid Waste) and professional

associations (Syndicate of Engineers, Syndicate of Contractors & Planners) to develop the tools

and guidelines to conduct rapid and detailed technical assessments – physical damage to buildings

and infrastructure, assess functionality of infrastructure and services, prioritise interventions,

develop minimum standards relating to structural integrity and safety, etc. Comprehensive Solid

Waste and WASH plans were developed in 1 city. Field physical damage assessment is being

piloted in 1 city.

In 2016, UNDP Syria succeeded in repairing 402 km of basic network out of which 379 km of

water network in Aleppo, when the city witnessed heavy shortage of water, this also included

creation of 380 monthly job opportunities and 111,000 people who had better access to water/

sanitation network through these interventions.

Output 2.4, access to housing and infrastructure rehabilitation

UN-Habitat supported to Real Estate Department (Cadastral Department) and Municipal temporary cadastral records departments to recover damaged or lost cadastral documents (permanent and temporary) and re-establish cadastral services (housing land property) in areas of high return potential. Complemented with technical support and capacity building in line with international best practice for Department and Municipal technical staff.

UN-Habitat implemented Neighbourhood area based housing, WASH, solid waste, public infrastructure, municipal services and market rehabilitation activities in 10 neighbourhoods (approximately 350,000 targeted host and IDP residents).

Building on the results of its crisis response in Syria, UNDP focused on assisting local communities in promoting return of IDPs through restoration of the basic services delivery and repair of basic and community infrastructure in severely affected areas. This led to creation of emergency employment for the affected host communities and IDPs covering 8 governorates: 20,041 monthly job opportunities were provided; 267,568 tons of solid waste and debris were removed, 142,400 fuel briquettes were produced from recycled waste, as well as 145 municipal service equipment/vehicle maintained, 36 social/productive infrastructure and 403 km of basic networks were repaired, reaching 2,466,804 from the affected communities who benefited from services provided.

10,669 people benefiting from rehabilitation houses through UNHCR programme. In addition, 41,947 people benefiting from rehabilitated essentials infrastructures. UNHCR supported the rehabilitation of 15,172 units of essential infrastructures.

UNHCR’s shelter programme shifted part of its focus in 2016 to more durable solutions, including owner-oriented shelter assistance, which also supports IDPs returning to their original homes.

c) Pillar 3: Improving socio-economic resilience of the Syrian people

Through its socioeconomic recovery programme and area-based approach, UNDP focused on business revival, job creation, distribution of productive assets &vocational training targeting 9 governorates; 102 micro-to-small businesses were revived/ established including fishing, farming,

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sewing, vocational & food-processing workshops, this provided 9,485 monthly job opportunities for crisis-affected people out of which 4,093 are females; 1,787 affected youth received vocational training and 1,227 People with disabilities were reached by a wide spectrum of specific/cross-cutting activities tailored to respond to their basic needs within this programme.

UNDP used also livelihoods activities as an entry point for inter-communal activities, 25 grant agreements were signed with NGOs in 6 governorates and 75 Youth-led Initiatives were implemented in 8 governorates with a total of 27,037 participants engaged in community and inter-communal activities aiming to improve living conditions of the affected people and be more active in the community. Those initiatives were selected in a participatory approach including all people focusing on IDPs, women, youth and those whose vulnerability increased due to the crisis; such activities were as food/drama/sport/music/art for peace and recycling used materials into creative ideas as well as photography/movie-making skills targeting talented youth.

UNICEF initiated in 2016 a social protection programme addressing the needs of children with complex disabilities, and including cash transfers and case management practices. About 1,760 children with disabilities living in Aleppo benefitted for the first time from cash transfers that will allow their families to better respond to their needs. Furthermore, about 400,000 children and care givers benefitted from sustained and structured psycho-social support in 2016.

UNICEF collaborated with multiple ministries and local partners on the ground to ensure that over 750,000 adolescents and youth (10-24 years), including 54% girls, benefitted from a comprehensive package of age-appropriate services and opportunities, including life skills based education, community-based vocational and entrepreneurship training, social arts and sports through 28 Multi-Service Platforms in 11 governorates. Over 91,200 benefitted in hard to reach locations. Furthermore, through the establishment of 7 Innovation Labs over 31,000 young people received coaching and support to develop and implement over 4,100 of their own initiatives at local level, contributing to improved resilience, social cohesion and boosting of young girls’ and boys’ leadership skills.

WFP currently has five projects that are in various stages of implementation and more are underway. The five project diverse activities such as rehabilitation of bakeries, establishment of kitchen gardens, restoration of green houses, enhancement of the value chain for honey, etc.

WFP implemented four different livelihoods projects, assisting 33,350 beneficiaries. The four projects included a variety of programmatic approaches such as a joint programming with FAO assisting vulnerable farmers through rehabilitation of damaged greenhouses and provision of training on agricultural best practice; multi-project activities with Aga Khan Foundation and Action Contre le Faim identified by beneficiary communities as priorities, including kitchen gardens; food processing; skills trainings; agricultural extension support; enhancing value chain for urban and rural bee-keepers through the provision of inputs and trainings. Due to project locations and limited timeframe to expand the cash-based transfer (CBT) modality, all livelihood activities were supported with in-kind food rations, while a partial transition to CBT is planned to take place 2017. At the end of 2016, the implementation of a new livelihood project began, which aims at enhancing the retail sector rehabilitation through rebuilding and providing production lines for bakeries damaged by the conflict in Homs.

UNRWA was able to distribute $ 28,727,155.93 during the third round of cash distribution that ran from 01 August until 15 November 2016 reaching 408,102 refugees. The cash assistance provided is equivalent to USD 74 per person for 2 months. During 2016, three rounds of food assistance were conducted reaching 257,495 refugees throughout Syria.

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As part of the effort to improve livelihoods, promote economic activity and improve food security at both household level (micro-economic level) and sustaining the food supply chain (food availability and stability) at macro-economic level, FAO has supported several interventions aimed at increasing household food availability and entitlement/access by increasing net supply or reducing net market demand, through production and productivity enhancement. The following numbers of households have benefitted from the various agricultural support interventions:

a) 3,520MT of wheat seeds were distributed to 17,600 HHs in Aleppo, Al-Hasakeh, Hama, Homs and Rural Damascus, while 1152 farmers received training on agronomy and natural resource management under the themes Save and Grow, Climate Smart Agriculture and Conservation Agriculture.

b) 35,000 households benefited from improved veterinary service provision (1.2 million sheep and goats were treated for against ecto- and endo-parasites, coupled with the training of veterinary workers on disease surveillance);

c) 3,500 household received livestock feeds (for poultry and sheep);

d) 26,900 households in Aleppo, As-Sweida, Dar'a, Hama, Homs, Lattakia, Quneitra and

Tartous were supported with assorted vegetable kits to establish microgardens and

backyard/kitchen gardens in their homes. Of these, 323 farmers received training on

home-gardening. For this activity, FAO has followed a cascade training modality that

proved to be efficient from previous experience. The training depends on building the

capacity of a certain percentage of the beneficiaries, and those trainees will later train

other members of their local community to disseminate the knowledge in a participatory

manner. The training focused on home gardening and best agriculture practices.

UN-Habitat supported to 250 workshops and light industry for residents and IDPs returnees to restart small and micro businesses that were damaged during the crisis.

UNFPA enhanced the resilience of 85 youth from different social backgrounds through building their capacity on project planning and management as well as communication during crisis. Beside improving resilience, such initiative contribute to improving the social cohesion among the targeted youth. In addition one workshop has been conducted by the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs and Population with representatives from MOH and Ministry of Justice on the legal considerations for CMR performance by Syrian medical doctors. The workshop recommendations have been shared with policy makers and will be used as the basis for CMR trainings in 2017.

UNHCR significantly expanded its outreach and presence to target a larger number of beneficiaries with protection and community services. In order to strengthen the delivery of protection services, UNHCR managed to increase the number of community centers from 30 to 74 within one year. Community centers are located predominantly in areas hosting large number of displaced Syrians and offer integrated services focusing on social and legal protection. Vulnerable students benefitted from remedial and catch-up classes, accelerated learning programs and summer camps, vulnerable families were supported with material assistance based on individual needs, and children, adolescents, adults and older persons benefitted from social and recreational activities, awareness-raising sessions or other activities and services offered daily at these centers. Overall, UNHCR provided assistance to 221,702 households identified as vulnerable, and social inclusion services to 252,808 beneficiaries of community spaces/centers.

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Cross Cutting

Joint Programming:

The EU has given the greenlight for the Joint Programme to Build Urban and Rural Resilience and Recovery in Syria. It has been a long process of talks and discussions in order to clarify sensitive aspects of the Joint Programme. The Participating UN agencies and EU are still finalizing the proposal and final budget according to the EU regulations. The Participating UN agencies expect to submit proposal and the budget to the EU at the end of this year 2016.

The Government of Japan has also approved a joint initiative across eight UN agencies focusing on Back to Learning. The joint programme will contribute to ensuring more children and young people have access to quality learning, skills building and participation including those in hard to reach and besieged areas. The interventions will also target vulnerable IDPs and host communities in Aleppo and Rural Damascus. The central aim of the joint programme is to maximize synergies and complementarity within the comparative advantages of each UN agency in ways that encourage local ownership and build resilience for sustainability.

IOM:

In 2016, IOM Shelter services have included shelter repair works, and shelter upgrade works for IDPs living in collective shelters and unfinished buildings, complemented with provision of Non-Food Item (NFI) kits. IOM Syria launched the “damaged houses repair” (DHR) project in the governorate of Homs, and has helped 1,015 displaced individuals from Homs to return safely to their homes.

IOM health care assistance includes provision of disability support items; medical equipment and supplies, and establishment of primary health care units. Accordingly, one prosthetic limb manufacturing workshop was set in Homs. This included the rehabilitation of facilities; training of three technicians; provision of equipment and supplies and raw materials to produce 190 prosthetic limbs.

IOM Livelihood services implemented business start-up training and provision of in-kind grants to amputees (185 amputees). Beneficiaries should be over 15 years old, and if a minor his/her parents. The amputees were supported to prepare detailed business plans that enabled them to get the needed assets to establish their microbusinesses.

In addition IOM, under Kuwait fund, revitalized and rehabilitated local handmade carpets’ cooperatives (1 in Tartous Governorate and 2 in Lattakia) in cooperation with local communities and Al Bustan NGO, including various interrelated labor intensive activities such as rehabilitation of the work place, maintenance of production tools (the looms) and provision of raw materials. IOM through this intervention has created 100 self-employment opportunities, and sustained 170 existing job opportunities.

5. Challenges in implementation

The main challenge for the UN Strategic Framework implementation remains the complex and extremely volatile security situation in the country. Limited access to hard-to reach and besieged areas continues to affect the overall humanitarian response, including e.g. large-scale immunization campaigns, support to water systems and education.

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Despite ongoing capacity development, in certain cases the limited capacity of some local partners has also posed challenges in programme implementation. The limited availability of service providers and suppliers who meet the required high standards (partly attributable to reduced sector capacity as a result of the conflict) frustrated the delivery of some of the services and inputs.

Furthermore, while efforts are being made to strengthen systems and enhance resilience, the main focus is still on humanitarian interventions. This has made it difficult to mobilize multi-year and flexible funding specifically for the UN Strategic Framework. Related to this, increased donor conditionality is hampering UN efforts to enhance institutional and systems development.

In addition, various bureaucratic hurdles continue to delay the UN response. Time-consuming approval procedures, including for partner NGOs, have hampered the implementation of certain interventions. UN agencies face long and unpredictable approval processes for new projects which limits the scale, type and locations of where the UN is able to implement activities.

Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria in 2011, the collection of data, including population-

related data, has been challenging. The last nationwide population census was conducted in 2004.

The inadequacy of reliable data is a serious obstacle for proper planning and programming for

both the Government as well as for all organizations working in Syria. Furthermore, monitoring

and tracking of field activities was often very difficult, and this has to some extent affected

reporting and effective technical supervision of some of the interventions.

Finally, the economic context continued to be characterized by significant price rises, high unemployment and inflation, essential commodity shortages, further compounded by the continued impact of sanctions, challenging the implementation of the UN interventions.

6. Funding Mapping

Please find attached the funding mapping table.

7. Priorities moving forward 2017

Priorities per areas:

Health: reaching every man, women and child in need with primary and secondary health care services with improved access to and quality of services including immunization, neo-natal, maternal care, noncommunicable disease management and life-sustaining surgical interventions.

Nutrition: reaching every child under five and pregnant and lactating women in need with preventative and therapeutic nutrition care, concentrating on micro-nutrient deficiencies.

WASH: continued support to the operation and maintenance of public infrastructure, rehabilitation of water and sanitation municipal systems, provision of critical water disinfectant (i.e. sodium hypochlorite), development of alternative water sources and water disinfectant, solid waste management campaigns, and hygiene awareness raising activities.

Education: enhancing equitable access to education for out-of-school children; promoting quality education through continuous professional development of teachers; scaling up the implementation of self-learning and the accelerated education programme (‘Curriculum B’).

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Child Protection and Social Protection: providing vulnerable children and adolescents with psycho-social support, vocational training, risk education on the dangers of unexploded remnants of war and life skills based education; expanding and strengthening the availability of specialized services and support for children with serious protection concerns through training of social workers on case management; regular distribution of cash to families that have children with disabilities and out of school children enrolled in the Self-Learning Programme. Further consolidate community based protection approaches to ensure effective and sustainable responses drawing on the capacities and resources within the communities. Strengthen the focus of the shelter program on durable solutions, supporting not only IDPs but also host communities, owners as well as tenants. Further enhance legal aid projects and capacity-building so to reach greater numbers of Syrians in need of civil and HLP-related documentation, operationalize legal HLP assistance to protection and shelter actors.

Livelihoods: comprehensive package for building resilience to threats affecting food security and rural livelihoods. This will entail building the adaptive, absorptive and transformative capacities of vulnerable households, communities and support institutions through the four pillars of building resilient livelihoods: creating an enabling environment; watching to safeguard; applying prevention and mitigation measures; and preparedness to respond. Continued championing of a livelihoods agenda for adolescents and youth, by further expansion of seed funding to vulnerable youth (15+) for the implementation of social and business entrepreneurship initiatives. In addition: providing equitable access to capacity development, skill-building and engagement opportunities through Multi-Service Platforms and Innovation Labs, for adolescents and youth (10-24 years).

Urban Area Based Rehabilitation: Expand Urban Area Based rehabilitation interventions (housing, green/open spaces, infrastructure, municipal services, urban economy, etc.) in partnership with municipalities and partners agencies and organisations. Particular focus on newly accessible locations. Furthermore, develop and launch a national Housing Sector Profile with line ministries to assess and provide policy and programme recommendations on all aspects related to the Rehabilitation of Housing in post-crisis locations (i.e. financing, assessments, designs, private sector capacity, legal and regulatory framework, etc.).

Municipal and Neighborhood Planning approach: Evaluate the results Municipal and Neighbourhood Planning Approach and expand to more municipalities. Develop more partnerships with other actors to include a greater degree of technical and programmatic expertise.

The following general priorities, some of these listed in the mid-year report remain valid:

The UN agencies, funds and programmes will continue with the implementation of current interventions and will be looking to scale up several programme interventions, taking into account the prevailing security situation and access constraints. This includes continued support and follow up with PICC and CBS on the implementation of the sociodemographic survey. The Central Bureau Statistics (CBS) will develop and use data collection tools, agreed with UN agencies, including direct interviews with households in accessible areas, and others methods and tools, such as key informant interviews, which will be used to collect data from hard to reach areas.

In order to contribute to sustainable development goals and with the national priorities defined in the strategic framework, the UN will keep working on the stabilization of local communities to promote the return of IDPs by restoring and repairing basic social infrastructure and services in severely affected crisis areas with limited access, this will include also activities such as restoring

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electricity supply and exploring renewable and energy sources. The UN will also continue promoting the economic recovery, local markets, value chains and creation of new businesses and income generation opportunities.

The UN agencies, funds and programmes will work to establish clearer links between humanitarian and recovery/resilience interventions, ensuring that humanitarian and development work are complementary. Planning approaches and cycles between the humanitarian and resilience frameworks will be further harmonized.

In order to ensure critical support for interventions under the UN Strategic Framework, the UN agencies will promote a better understanding among donors on the UN Strategic Framework, including the need to work among long-term IDPs and in host communities.

Prepare and complete an operational work plan for each Pillar Group in 2017.