Humanitarian Field Officer Project After more than eight years of crisis, staggering levels of need persist for people throughout Syria. Millions of people in Syria have suffered enormous hardship, violence, mass displacement and an erosion of basic social infrastructure and community systems. In 2019, it is estimated that 11.7 million people will require some form of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance, while the political and security landscape in Syria is likely to remain complex and dynamic. 

The affected populations living in volatile and insecure areas where there is a lack of rule of law, where armed conflict continues and where there are high levels of criminality. The situation is compounded further by the fact that there are multiple armed opposition groups, including the proscribed Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). The humanitarian operation in northern Syria is remotely managed and mainly implemented by a high number of Syrian NGOs that are operating in partnership with INGOs and UN agencies.
The previous Field Assistant project implemented by Basmeh and Zeitouneh proved to be valuable through the provision of timely humanitarian information and the support provided to humanitarian access. 
Given the recent developments in northern Syria that further exacerbate the need for timely and reliable information, stronger community engagement and create additional challenges to principled humanitarian access, field-based support to the “Accountability Framework” endorsed by the HLG is highly needed.
The Humanitarian Field Officer (HFO) project aims to provide such support by ensuring timely information flow, coordination support as close to the affected population as possible, and the ability to guide and support humanitarian responders in their area of operation through a team of field-based HFOs based in Syria. 


Under the Coordination and Common Services objective 1 “Provide effective coordination support across response modalities and reinforce the humanitarian response” and its four outputs, the HFO project aims to:

1/ Support the cross-border humanitarian coordination mechanisms, humanitarian decision makers, and leadership in taking informed operational and strategic decisions by
- Continuously engaging with all relevant stakeholders on the ground to gather information on humanitarian needs, response, and gaps
- Continuously monitoring issues that impact on the humanitarian context, especially on humanitarian access
- Actively contributing to timely and relevant information flow between relevant stakeholders inside Syria and Turkey on needs, access, and response plans
- Supporting the monitoring of humanitarian projects 
- Supporting IASC coordination processes, including HPC elements, e.g. needs assessments – MSNA.

2/ Support enhanced quality of delivery through strengthened community engagement related activities and mechanisms by
- Continuously engaging with the local communities and the affected population to gather and report on their views, inputs, expectations and feedback 
- Supporting the awareness raising of local communities and affected populations of humanitarian response to ensure they are aware of principles underpinning humanitarian response and of the standard of support they can expect from the humanitarian response 
- Facilitating linkages between affected communities and the Turkey-based clusters, coordination mechanisms and humanitarian leadership. 

3/ Support improved quality of the response through enhanced capacities and awareness of humanitarian and non-humanitarian stakeholders on the principles underpinning the humanitarian response.
- Facilitating awareness raising sessions of humanitarian workers in Syria on topics under the Accountability Framework and around humanitarian coordination
- Supporting the sensitization and awareness of humanitarian principles and requirements for principled access with authorities on the ground.