Humanitarian Needs in Government Controlled Areas of Syria

Conclusions Timely and accurate report of needs in emergencies is a persistent challenge. Situational reporting is often anecdotal or based on information provided by convenience samples, key informants, projections or a combination of these approaches. This assessment is the only large-scale multi-sectoral assessment conducted in Syria in the past two years that uses a random sample of households, thus findings are more scientifically rigorous than most other available sources. The greatest levels of unmet humanitarian needs were observed in the West Coast, Rif Damascus, and al-Hasakeh. Of note, was the finding that Lattakia and Tartous had high unmet needs in both the shelter and food security sectors and moderate water and sanitation needs which contrasts with other recent reports indicating lower levels of need in those governorates.1817 Lattakia and Tartous are mostly government controlled, however, the proportion of households receiving assistance was among the lowest of all survey areas which may explain the higher than anticipated levels of unmet need. Al-Hasakeh differed from other areas included in the assessment in that displacement was more recent and coverage of humanitarian assistance was low, which is largely due to aid organizations having poor access (though indications are this may be improving). The high prevalence of coping mechanism use and other indicators suggest the population in al-Hasakeh is in need of additional support and that an expanded respon...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research