Syrian Arab Republic: 2017 inter-agency operations end-of-year review

With the submission of the two-month plan starting in April-May, the UN requested access to a larger population than what had been requested by the Syrian government on a monthly basis to account for the longer implementation period. In August-September, the approved number of targeted beneficiaries exceeded those requested. However, access did not improve in this period. In 2017, the UN and partners have successfully delivered multi-sectoral assistance through inter-agency operations to over 820,000 people in need in besieged and hard-to-reach locations, compared to 1.2 million in 2016 and 527,665 reached in 2015. The number of people in besieged areas decreased from 974,080 at the end of 2016 to 417,566 at the end of 2017. The total population reached in 2017, however, varied widely month-to-month due to continued access constraints, including insecurity, further reductions in number of approved beneficiaries, additional requirements for downstream approvals and delays with administrative procedures, even in months when a higher number of requested beneficiaries in the plan was approved. On average, in 2017, only 27.5 per cent of the requested targeted people in need received assistance. A total of 345,970 people, cumulatively, were not reached because 20 out of 55 convoys were implemented for numbers lower than those initially approved. Almost 60 per cent of those who were not reached were in locations in East Ghouta.