Provision of life-saving and sustaining assistance and supporting self-reliance of affected households through agricultural support in Aleppo and Dara governorates (Priority 2) The food security situation in Syria has reached historically high numbers with an estimated of 60% of the population who are now food insecure as Syria enters the 12th year of conflict. 
In addition, the worsening of macro-economic conditions and the Ukrainian crisis are further contributing to sharp inflation, lack of availability of jobs are further putting pressure, especially on the most vulnerable families to meet their basic needs. 

Based on current COOPIs experience in Syria in Food Security and Agriculture (FSA) sector, the present intervention will provide an integrated resilience approach to provide immediate support to food through distribution of Food Vouchers, while at the same time strengthening the resilience, self-sufficiency, livelihood opportunities and agricultural recovery through distribution of agricultural kits to the most vulnerable households. 

The proposed action will contribute to the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) specific objectives SO1 “Provide life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people with an emphasis on those in areas with high severity of needs” through distribution of 550 unconditional restricted food vouchers over the 8-months period. The value of the voucher is calculated based on recommendation of FSA sector and it is 70% of MEB food gap which is recommended for long-term distribution. 

As well as Objective 3 “Support self-reliance of affected households by protecting and building productive assets and restoring or creating income generating opportunities to save and sustain lives.”

In total 300 agricultural kits will be distributed to beneficiaries with access to land to re-establish and improve agricultural production for self-consumption and to sell surplus crops at the market or share within their community.
The most vulnerable households in three target sub-districts: Except  Daret Azza who is under severity score 3,  Atareb in Aleppo, Nawa in Dara governorate are all under severity scale level 4 (extreme), assessment findings from COOPI show that there are severe needs, and a 100% gap in response for food assistance. All districts will be supported with unconditional restricted vouchers in order to have an access to variety of food and cover food gap of MEB during the period of 8 months- for those beneficiaries that don’t have access to land agricultural kits aligned with FSA guidelines, will be distributed, combined with Training on post-harvest loss reduction techniques and improved farming practices will be provided.
The project will focus on the most vulnerable households (HHs), especially women headed HHs, elderly people, people with disabilities (PwD), Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLW), child-headed households vulnerable returnees, IDPs and residents providing them with the unconditional restricted food vouchers with the value of 181,000 SYP per month or agricultural kits to strengthening their resiliency and access to food. In line with recommendations of FSA a 15% contingency has been added to the Food Voucher value- to be able to mitigate expected inflation.
The project will ensure immediate and consistent access to food and increase their resilience and self-sufficiency by enabling them to divert food expenses to more urgent needs. The project will positively affect the local economies by increasing demand for food and through promoting community economic opportunity and the participation of local vendors in the voucher scheme.
In addition, the presence of COOPIs protection team in the target areas enables an integrated approach and referral of the most vulnerable for specialized protection services- while protection team will be able to ensure inclusion of the most vulnerable households in the project.