Emergency assistance to conflict-affected communities in North West Syria to cover the core and essential NFI items and winter needs though Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) The scale, severity and complexity of the humanitarian situation and needs in North West Syria (NWS), exacerbated by continuous inter-factional fighting, lawlessness and government military offensives over the past 9 years, have caused an unprecedented number of civilian deaths and largescale population displacement. As of 5 March 2020, when the Russia-Turkey ceasefire was announced, Idleb has seen relative calm, however, the looming threat of a COVID-19 outbreak and renewed fighting remains. 

Since 1 December 2019, almost 1 million people have been displaced from the southern parts of Idleb and Western Aleppo. This raised the total number of displaced people in NWS to 2.84 million (CCCM Snapshot update of 8 March 2020 and Population Overview of NWS of 6 March 2020.). The hostilities impact heavily on civilians who have already endured multiple displacements and years of violence. This has further strained host communities in terms of non-food items (NFIs), winter needs, food, shelter, and protection needs. The winter months signify increased seasonal needs among the most vulnerable. 

GOAL has extensive experience in cross-border humanitarian operations in NWS, including through its well established and agile rapid response mechanism the North Syria Response Facility (NSRF), through which in-kind and cash assistance contributed by a range of institutional donors is pre-positioned, enabling GOAL to provide a rapid, appropriate and needs-based multi-modality response to shocks such as displacement. GOAL’s winter response is also delivered through the NSRF.

GOAL is proposing an action to provide life-saving and life-sustaining shelter and NFI support across three sub-districts in Idleb and North Aleppo governorates - A’zaz, Qourqeena, Salqin. The selected locations have been coordinated, agreed and confirmed with the SNFI cluster.

Provision of core and essential NFIs
Using the NSRF, GOAL proposes an action of emergency MPCA distribution to cover the needs of affected displaced households (HHs) to purchase core and essential NFIs. Each HH will receive $100 in line with NFI monetization guidance developed by the Shelter and Non-Food Item (SNFI) Cluster and Cash Working Group (CWG). 1,000 HHs/5,000 individuals will benefit from provision of MPCA to cover core and essential NFIs

Provision of seasonal and supplementary NFIs including heating fuel
Under the winterization component, GOAL aims to provide additional support to its vulnerable food security beneficiaries to meet increased needs during the cold winter months using a cash-based response, thus reducing reliance on negative coping strategies. Under this component, 3,600 HHs/18,000 individuals will benefit from provision of $120 of MPCA to cover seasonal and supplementary NFIs including heating fuel. The cash transfer value is decided based on GOAL’s experience in winter response and coordination between the SNFI Cluster and the CWG, with SNFI Cluster guidance indicating that $120 will be enough to cover approximately 60 of the coldest days of heating fuel needs with 4 litres per HH/day. GOAL will aim to complete the winter response by the end of December 2020.

As in last year’s winter response, GOAL will coordinate beneficiary selection criteria with the SNFI Cluster and the CWG and will include HHs headed by women, minors, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and HHs in mountainous areas with high snow coverage, extreme temperatures, or high winter needs.

The proposed subdistricts for the winter response have been selected based on high levels of need, gaps in NFI response, SNFI Cluster priorities, and GOAL’s access. GOAL will coordinate the specific sub-district(s) where the response will take place once the SNFI Cluster coordination team shares the priority locations for 2020 winter responses. GOAL has access to all of the above-mentioned subdistricts.