The ongoing conflict in Syria has left 13.5 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance. Several local and international organizations provide aid to northern Syria, but their chosen modalities fail to effectively meet community members’ needs. While aiming to respond to immediate short-term needs, this research demonstrates that these modalities also tend to distort markets and undermine local urban economies. Current approaches to aid provision are yet to reflect economic adaptation in Syrian cities, failing to support and build on existing local resources, capacities and strengths. A shift from mainstream programming to include more contextualized market-based approaches is vital to fill this gap in aid provision.
About the Project
This working paper was published in 2017 by Deborah Commins and Sarah Moharram, and produced by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Human Settlements Group, in partnership with Trust Consultancy & Development and Bridging Peoples.
This research project was undertaken to establish evidence-based findings showing the actual and long-term impact of the aid delivered in the northern Syria context, and particularly:
- 1) To investigate the impact of humanitarian aid on local economies and community members’ livelihoods in the two Syrian cities of Darkoush and Salquin, in Idleb governorate.
- 2) To identify challenges and potential opportunities for response planning going forward.
Methodology
The focus of this project was broad, with fieldwork conducted to gain a ‘snapshot’ of key changes that have come about in the local economies of Darkoush and Salquin since the beginning of the crisis in 2011 compared to the time of the fieldwork (November 2016), and to gather community members’ general insights into the impact of the aid that has been provided – from their own perspective.
These results were then shared in a workshop with 19 Syrian aid practitioners working for LNGOs and INGOs delivering aid in northern Syria, to discuss research findings and related issues that have emerged in their own work, and to identify potential paths forward in response programming. The overall approach was to use mixed methods, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and conducted in the following stages:
Desk review and mapping exercise of projects that have been implement recently in these two cities,
Quantitative research (household surveys) with 204 community members in the two cities,
Quantitative research with 27 key informant interviews with local stakeholders, and four focus group discussions with 25 aid participants,
A participatory workshop with 19 Syrian aid practitioners held in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Main Findings of the Research
1. More flexible forms of aid provision can be implemented through used of cash transfers, unconditional vouchers, or local sourcing, among other possibilities.
2. Many Syrian aid practitioners noted their feeling of helplessness at the impact of food packets in creating distorted and dependent local economies.
3. By keeping aid modalities inflexible, particularly in a conflict zone, donors run the risk that their decisions will fail to hit the mark.
