The UN said this week that it needs $7.73 billion to help people inside Syria, Syrian refugees, and the communities hosting them in 2016.
A London donor conference is set for February.
UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said in a statement that aid focus needs to go beyond traditional humanitarian relief. “Conventional approaches of ‘relief now, development later’ will not work in Syria or in other protracted crises,” she said. “Refugees, host communities and internally displaced people in Syria need livelihoods. They need basic services, like health, education, water, sanitation, electricity, and garbage removal.”
See: A different sort of aid for Syria
Past UN appeals for Syria are severely underfunded – the UN received only 53 percent of the 7.4 million it said it needed for 2015. As the war drags on, donors have given more but the percentage of needs they meet has decreased. A look at the numbers:
Photo: Wendy Bruere/UNICEF