Syrian Arab Republic interim country strategic plan (2022–2025)

Revision 01 approved by ED-DGFAO in December 2023

The Syrian Arab Republic has faced a prolonged crisis since 2011, which has caused severe damage to the country’s economic and social fabric. In 2020, protracted crisis, economic collapse and the impacts of the coronavirus disease pandemic further exposed the Syrian people to food insecurity and eroded their livelihoods. As of late 2020, 12.4 million people, 55 percent of the population, were food-insecure, an increase of 57 percent from 2019, with households headed by women disproportionally affected. Some 6.7 million people remain internally displaced. In addition there are an estimated 3.1 million people with disabilities. While acute malnutrition is not widespread, high stunting rates indicate that chronic malnutrition remains a problem nationwide.

Reflecting WFP’s experience and lessons learned and harnessing its comparative advantages and collaboration with humanitarian and development stakeholders, the 2022‒2023 interim country strategic plan is aimed at responding to the growing food and nutrition needs, the severe deterioration of livelihoods and resilience and the collapse of food systems. WFP will continue its large-scale provision of unconditional food assistance, refocus its education and nutrition activities and expand its activities aimed at strengthening livelihoods, boosting household resilience and restoring food systems. It will further embed strategic efforts to enhance beneficiary targeting and management, the use of digital tools, gender- and disability-sensitive data collection, evidence-based programming and diversity of transfer modalities.

The interim country strategic plan is designed to achieve four strategic outcomes:

➢ Food-insecure populations affected by the crisis, including host communities, internally displaced persons and returnees across all governorates in the Syrian Arab Republic, meet their basic food and nutrition needs all year round.

➢ Food-insecure communities in targeted areas are able to meet their food and nutrition needs throughout the year thanks to resilient livelihoods and restored access to basic services. ➢ Nutritionally vulnerable groups across the Syrian Arab Republic, especially boys, girls and pregnant and lactating women, have access to malnutrition prevention and treatment services throughout the year.

➢ Humanitarian partners across the Syrian Arab Republic are enabled to assist crisis-affected populations all year long.

In line with the WFP Gender Policy (2015‒2020) and the WFP protection and accountability policy, and based on findings and recommendations of the evaluation of the WFP regional response to the Syrian crisis (January 2015‒March 2018), gender and protection principles will be meaningfully mainstreamed into WFP’s efforts to achieve the four strategic outcomes. Consistent communication with beneficiaries will ensure that achievements are fully informed by the various views and capacities of the targeted girls, boys, men and women, including those with disabilities.

The interim country strategic plan for 2022‒2023 is aligned with the inter-agency humanitarian response plan for the Syrian Arab Republic and contributes to the priorities of the Syria 2030 strategy as well as to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11 and 17, both directly and indirectly. The interim country strategic plan also contributes to the draft strategic framework for cooperation between the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the United Nations for 2021‒2024.