The humanitarian response in Syria is a complex operation with relief assistance and protection services delivered to millions of affected people from multiple hubs from within Syria, as well as from Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Since the inception of the Whole of Syria (WoS) approach, significant progress has been made on information sharing and strategic coordination, reducing overlap in coverage and facilitating response by the most direct and effective modalities of assistance. However, despite considerable achievements, the operational reach and effectiveness of humanitarian actors continues to be severely impeded by the on-going conflict as well as by onerous administrative and bureaucratic procedures and the active obstruction of aid delivery to besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
Despite these challenges, throughout 2015, humanitarian actors operating within Syria and from across its borders redoubled their efforts to address deepening vulnerabilities and to provide humanitarian support to an ever-growing caseload of people in need across the country. Syrian NGOs and other frontline humanitarian actors such as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) continue to shoulder the lion’s share of relief efforts throughout the country.
