Beyond Humanitarian Assistance? UNHCR and the Response to Syrian Refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, January 2013 – April 2014

UNHCR has commissioned an independent evaluation of the response to the influx of refugees from Syria in Jordan and Lebanon. This independent evaluation was taking place at a time when there is a realisation that the crisis and refugee situation will be protracted and when both the affordability and the related sustainability of the response, possibly even the on-going need for humanitarian assistance itself, are being questioned. One year after UNHCR’s recommendation, following a real-time evaluation of its Syrian refugee response operations, to scale up and improve the agency’s coverage of refugees and reinforce its presence and capacity at the point of delivery, the focus and challenge is to devise a longer-term strategy to cover evolving refugee needs over time.

The methodology of this Evaluation is based on the collection and analysis of a broad range of evidence from multiple sources. These include evaluations, surveys and other data generated by UNHCR, its partners and others as part of the overall response to the Syrian crisis. The Evaluation also involved the collection of its own primary evidence, namely qualitative data from field phase interviews, a household survey among persons of concern, and a post-field phase online survey to confirm, qualify, and fill in any analytical gaps.

The general scope of this Evaluation covers the period from 1 January 2013 to 31 March 2014, even though the analysis concentrated on the second half of 2013, up to the date of this Report. The Evaluation’s analysis and approach adheres to and meets the quality standards set out by the OECD DAC criteria for humanitarian evaluations.