The pandemic-fed economic downturn and donor fatigue lead to nearly $2 billion less in pledged aid from the international community.
BEIRUT – ON TOP OF nearly 10 years of civil war and displacement, Syrians are now reckoning with a new set of threats, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a currency collapse, skyrocketing inflation and food shortages.
But the rest of the world, also grappling with the pandemic and its economic fallout, now has less help to give, as became evident at this week’s conference of international donors.
The United Nations and European Union convened the fourth annual Brussels Conference – held via video conferencing due to social distancing concerns – on Tuesday to mobilize financial support from international donors for the humanitarian response in Syria and neighboring refugee-hosting countries.
At the end of the event, officials announced that donors had pledged a total of $7.7 billion toward humanitarian response in Syria and neighboring countries that have seen a refugee influx, a decrease of nearly $2 billion from last year.
The pledges include $5.5 billion for 2020 and another $2.2 billion for 2021 and beyond. In addition, international institutions pledged $6.7 in loans on concessional terms.
Last year, the total pledged was $9.4 billion, including $7 billion for 2019 and $2.4 billion for 2020 and beyond, along with about $21 billion in loans.
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock urged donors to “stay the course.”
“We recognize that circumstances are very unusual – it’s a difficult moment in every country to find the resources necessary to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people, but it’s essential that we do go on doing that work,” he said. “The situation in the region is not improving.”
Lowcock noted that the Syrian pound had fallen to an all-time low against the dollar earlier in June and the prices of essential goods are “soaring.”
“We’re seeing food insecurity rise to unprecedented levels,” he said, noting that the World Food Program estimates 9.3 million people inside Syria (more than half the population) are food insecure.
Meanwhile, Lowcock called the state of preparations to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic inside Syria “wholly inadequate” due to the destruction and deterioration of much of the health care system through years of war.
While Syria had only officially reported 269 cases of COVID-19 as of June 30, the World Health Organization noted that the “official figures likely represent a significant underestimate of the true number.”
Emma Beals, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute and independent researcher working on Syria, says this year’s reduction in pledges was “disappointing but not surprising.”
“The impact of COVID-19 on the domestic finances of major donors has been expected to impact their foreign donations, but COVID-19 has also had a major impact on the region, which is likely to last a long while and will see Syrians requiring more, not less, support in the near future.”
Beals adds that the “principled political positions” of many of the major donor countries, which have held that no reconstruction funds should be given to Syria before a “comprehensive political solution” is reached means that “millions (are) dependent on live-saving humanitarian aid for the long term inside and outside the country. This impasse means donors do need to find the funds to maintain and even increase assistance in the interim.”
At the same time, Beals says some donors have had concerns over the extent to which U.N. agencies operating out of Damascus have complied with the demands of the Syrian regime with regards to “access, procurement, and programming” in delivering aid.
While Syria’s problems appear to be multiplying, the neighboring countries that are hosting the bulk of the more than 5 million Syrians who have fled the country are facing their own issues.
In particular, Lebanon, which hosts more than 900,000 registered Syrian refugees, is facing a major currency crisis of its own that has led to price increases and shortages in basic essential items and increasing poverty among both Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees.
During the conference, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab told attendees that some 30% of Lebanese citizens and 55% of Syrian refugees in the country are living below the extreme poverty line. Along with financial support, Diab made an appeal for protection from new U.S. sanctions on Syria, which many anticipate will have a ripple effect in Lebanon, whose economy is deeply intertwined with Syria’s.
The “Caesar Act” sanctions, which began to take effect June 17, not only target specific Syrian officials and individuals with ties to them, but can also be applied broadly to third parties who “provide significant support or engage in a significant transaction with the Syrian government or those acting on behalf of Syria, Russia, or Iran.”
Citing a need to preserve “international peace and security against the backdrop of ongoing turmoil in the region,” Diab said, “I call on the United Nations, the European Union, and friendly nations to shield Lebanon from the negative repercussions of any sanctions that may be imposed on Syrians, particularly in the context of the Caesar Act, and to ensure that the repercussions do not disrupt our foreign commercial and economic actions, thus jeopardizing our ongoing efforts to get out of the present crisis that the country is in.”
U.S. and European officials have maintained that their sanction programs against Syria are targeted and will not apply to humanitarian or medical supplies.
Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. Special Representative for Syria Engagement, who announced a pledge at the Tuesday conference of more than $696 million for humanitarian assistance in Syria and refugee-hosting countries, did not directly address issue of sanctions but said the U.S. “will ensure that there is no blockage of humanitarian assistance by us or by anyone else.”
A number of the participating countries, including the U.S., as well as U.N. and EU officials, also called for renewal of a resolution allowing cross-border aid to enter northwest Syria from Turkey. U.N. Security Council Resolution 2504, passed in January, which extended authorization for cross-border humanitarian access by six months, is set to expire July 10.
Russia and China had vetoed a previous attempt to extend the cross-border aid for one year and to continue allowing crossings from Jordan and Iraq as well as Turkey.