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WFP Syria Crisis Regional Response Situation Report, February 2018

Attachments

Highlights

• In February, WFP reached an estimated 2.7 million people across Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey through various food and cash assistance programmes under the Country Strategic Plan (CSP) in Lebanon and Transitional Interim CSPs in the four countries.

• To continue the critical humanitarian assistance to millions of refugees and host communities in the region, WFP requires a total of USD 195.5 million. With current confirmed contributions, WFP’s operations in the region would be facing first pipeline breaks by end of April in Lebanon, beginning of May in Egypt, end of May in Jordan and Iraq.

Situation Update

• According to UNHCR, as of February, there are more than 5.4 million refugees from Syria in neighbouring countries of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, .

• A major suicide bombing took place on 13 January in Baghdad with 38 casualties and more than 105 injured.
Military operations continued to take place in Anbar and other areas of the country (Kirkuk, Ninewa) against militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

• Although deeply polarised on various political issues, a recently published report revealed that a large majority of Turkish citizens agree that “Syrians should be sent back to their country once the war in Syria has ended”. The report was issued by issued by AFAD (Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) and conducted by the Istanbul Bilgi University Centre for Migration Research—in partnership with the German Marshall Fund.

WFP Response

Food and Nutrition Assistance

Regional

• On 21-22 February, WFP attended the No Lost Generation (NLG) Tech Summit in Amman, Jordan. Participants included private sector actors and youth representatives from Syria, along with the NLG Taskforce. WFP presented the outcomes of the Jobs Make the Difference initiative’s consultations in Jordan, highlighting regional livelihood projects such as Iraq’s Tech for Food programme and Jordan’s Healthy Kitchens, which fed into a panel discussion on youth employment opportunities.

Egypt

• WFP Egypt supported a total of 78,331 refugees from Syria with cash-based transfers (CBTs) through general food assistance (GFA) and food-assistance-for-training (FFT) activities. Each beneficiary received a monthly voucher assistance worth EGP 400 (USD 22).

• In February, an assessment of 40 medical centres took place in Cairo, Giza, Damietta and Alexandria to kickstart the nutrition component for to provide nutritional support to pregnant and nursing women (PNW) within the Syrian refugee and host communities. The objective of this intervention is to raise the nutrition intake of Syrian and Egyptian pregnant women during their second and third trimester, and breastfeeding mothers in the first two years of the child's age. WFP is planning to support PNW in completing their regular medical checkups; a conditional paper voucher will be distributed monthly based on completion of monthly regular checkups.

Iraq

• WFP Iraq reached a total of 58,027 Syrian refugees with CBTs through GFA, totaling USD 1.1 million of assistance during the month. Each beneficiary of either unrestricted cash transfers or e-vouchers received IQD 22,000 (USD 19) per month.

• At the Conference on Reconstruction in Iraq, that took place in Kuwait on 12-14 February, the UN launched its Recovery and Resilience Programme (RRP). Envisioned as a nexus framework, the RRP builds on the work done by humanitarian partners to support displaced Iraqis and host families during the conflict, and on the efforts made by the Government of Iraq and the UN to stabilise the cities and districts newly retaken from ISIL. The RRP has an implementation cost of USD 482 million for the first year.

• Under the phase 2 of the Tech for Food activity, 50 new students were selected (from 195 applicants) to participate in the new cycle of training. The project has now transitioned to mobile money transfer. WFP Iraq envisages an expansion of the project to other areas of Iraq as well as to include IDPs and host communities together with refugees, reaching 1,000 participants by the end of 2018.

Jordan

• WFP Jordan supported a total of 495,430 Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians with in-kind and CBTs through GFA and FFA activities. The extremely vulnerable Syrian refugees in host communities were assisted through e-cards with a value of JOD 20 (USD 28), and vulnerable refugees through e-cards with a value of JOD 10 (USD 14).

• Effective 01 February, the Government of Jordan removed bread subsidy and increased taxes on food and non-food commodities. WFP conducted an analysis to assess the impact on the 11 commodities that comprise the referential food basket which serves as the basis to determine the transfer value provided to Syrian refugees. It was noted that the removal of bread subsidies increased the price of white pita bread by 60 percent. The remaining commodities in the basket were reported to have an increase between 6-10 percent. Based on the results of the analysis, WFP will be looking at the level of food assistance provided to vulnerable Syrian households.

• According to WFP Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, the set-up for the Disaster Recovery IT package is under way to be operational in March, enabling WFP to store a complete replica of our server room offsite. It can be activated whenever WFP cannot access the offices or need to move office on short notice.

• WFP, in partnership with World Vision, resumed its school feeding activities in Za’atri and Azraq camps.
Over 26,000 Syrian children attending formal education received freshly baked meals (a baked pastry, a piece of fruit and vegetables). Meals were prepared by Syrian women and men working the kitchens thus creating economic opportunities for refugees in camps. Workers received monthly cashbased transfers in return for their work.

Lebanon

• WFP Lebanon assisted 704,799 Syrian refugees,
Palestinian refugees from Syria, and vulnerable Lebanese with food and cash assistance through GFA, and school meals.

• WFP launched a moblie application, Dalili, an app allowing beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries to compare food prices in WFP contracted shops, in the village of Bar Elias in Beqaa as a pilot project, before being rolled out countrywide. WFP-contracted shop in Bar Elias was able to increase its customer base by an additional 4.8 percent after introducing and disseminating information on promotions through the app. The Dalili app is part of the portfolio of WFP Lebanon Retail Engagement activities and innovations implemented with a view to increase the purchasing power of retail customers and improve availability and access to nutritious food.

• WFP is working with the Government to install servers at the Ministry of Social Affairs which would allow for real-time monitoring of the national safety nets programme for vulnerable Lebanese.

Turkey

• WFP Turkey reached a total of 1,344,728 beneficiaries in February. Of this, a total of 145,246 beneficiaries received e-vouchers with monthly value of TRY 50 (USD 18) under the in-camp assistance programme.

• Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) payments were made to 1,199,482 people in February, or 204,967 households. During the focus group discussions (FGDs) of off-camp refugees in nine provinces across Turkey, which focused on housing, many participants reported ESSN assistance’s positive impact on their relationship with their landlords. Beneficiaries reported paying their rent and utility costs more regularly and in a more timely manner compared with ESSN ineligible FGD participants.

• Since 2012, WFP has injected USD 645 million into the Turkish economy through cash-based transfers.
WFP also has a history of large-scale commodity procurement in Turkey to support its global operations. More than USD 1.68 billion worth of commodities have been procured in Turkey since 2011. Almost two thirds of these commodities have been used for food assistance in WFP’s emergency response in Iraq, Syria and the region, including surrounding countries hosting refugees.

Economic Impact

• Since 2012, WFP’s regional operation has injected USD 3.4 billion into local economies in Egypt, Iraq,
Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, through cash-based transfers, local food procurement and other expenditure. In 2017 alone, WFP injected USD 942.7 million into the local economies.