Emergency assistance to conflict-affected displaced communities in North West Syria (SNFI) Following the intensification of airstrikes and shelling, almost 300,000 people fled from their homes, mainly from southern Idleb governorate 1 December 2019 to 1 January 2020, moving further north away from the hostilities. Ma’arrat An Nu’man and its countryside are reportedly depopulated, while thousands of people from Saraqab and its eastern countryside fled in anticipation of hostilities extending to their area. As of 20th December, ground fighting also resumed along the frontlines in southern Idleb governorate, amplifying displacement from southern Idleb as civilians are fleeing in anticipation of air and potential ground hostilities, directly affecting their communities. Displacement during winter is further exacerbating the vulnerability of those affected. Many of those who fled are in urgent need of humanitarian support, particularly shelter, food, health, non-food and winterization assistance. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe, with people walking in the streets. From the rapid needs assessments which was conducted by GOAL’s emergencies teams on the 22nd/23rd December along with other reports shared by clusters, UN, OCHA, Skype Groups, and reports from directly inside Syria, all have identified that IDPs are in need of a broad range of assistance (food, shelter, NFI, RTE, winter assistance, multi-purpose cash etc.).

Thus, GOAL is proposing one round of multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) for 4,060 displaced Households (HHs) in Salqin Sub-district to meet the various emergency needs as the displacements are taking place during the coldest winter days. The IDPs needs include shelter and winterization, as displacement is occurring during a critical winter time. Through the MPCA, affected people will have the flexibility to cover their needs such as paying rent, procuring fuel for heating, fuel for cooking, stoves, winter clothes etc.

Salqin was selected as the area of operation under this action, because it is under served sub-district from both emergencies and winter responses per the info shared by SNFI Cluster, from findings of the rapid needs assessment which were conducted by GOAL and filtering the findings on the sub-district level, fuel for heating, fuel for cooking and cash came as part of the top three priority needs in Salqin sub-district. From the recent waves of displacements during December 2019, over 4,000 HHs arrived into salqin and are in urgent needs for winterization and shelter support. Prior to the SCHF submission and during the project design phase, GOAL with other SNFI cluster partners (Ihsan, Violet, Big Heart and Shafak) with SNFI cluster coordination teams had a skype call and coordinated the response locations to avoid service overlap and duplication while ensuring as much coverage as possible. The displaced households are mainly displacements from Ma’arrat An Nu’man and Saraqab.

This proposed action will assist GOAL in scaling up its emergency and winter response window to affected households and will enable approximately 4,060 displaced HHs who were recently displaced into GOAL’s Area of Operations (AoOs) due to the recent security escalation in Northern Hama and South Idleb to meet their urgent basic needs of shelter and winterization, using MPCA for one round with $120 per household, as per the prices indicated in the REACH Northwest Syria Market Monitoring Exercise of the Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket.