Syrian organizations race to respond as international aid actors paralyzed post-Assad

MARSEILLE — As opposition forces swept into one Syrian city after another over the span of less than two weeks, ultimately toppling the Assad regime, prices soared and economic activity ground to a standstill in a country where most could already barely afford to get by. 

At the time the Assad regime fell on December 8, 90 percent of Syrians lived in poverty. Some 12.9 million faced food insecurity, and 16.7 million—more than 70 percent of the population—needed humanitarian assistance. 

Syrian aid organizations on the ground responded immediately, using any means they had. Within days, these groups were distributing bread and food baskets using their own organizational funds, employee contributions and private donations.

International organizations and major donors, meanwhile, were paralyzed. 

The gap between the local and international response—which continues—echoes the aftermath of the February 2023 earthquake in northern Syria and southern Turkey, when crucial rescue and relief efforts were spearheaded by Syrian organizations. 

Aid for Syria is generally allocated by donors to international organizations, which then funnel funds to Syrian organizations based in Jordan, Turkey and Syria.

“International organizations, until now, haven’t given the green light that they will send funding or give anything. They’re astonished by what happened, since it wasn’t expected,” Mohammed Jandali, founder and board president of the International Humanitarian Relief Association (IYD)—a Syrian aid organization registered in Turkey—told Syria Direct on Monday. 

While Syrian organizations are doing what they can, their response has been undermined by a lack of funding. “We conducted a rapid response but it is insufficient. Unfortunately, international organizations and donors have not moved yet,” Saeed Nihas, board chairman of Sened—a Syrian organization that supports Syrians with disabilities in Turkey and Syria—told Syria Direct on Tuesday.

Mercy Corps, one of the largest international non-government organizations (INGOs) operating in Syria, was still in the needs assessment phase as of Tuesday. “At this time, we are closely monitoring the developments in Syria and conducting an assessment to better understand the evolving needs on the ground,” communications manager Milena Murr told Syria Direct. 

Syria Direct also contacted the International Rescue Committee (IRC) on Thursday, which declined to answer any questions, saying “the situation is still developing.”

Sanctions impede action

A senior source at another INGO with a significant presence in northern Syria told Syria Direct on Thursday that it was not yet operating in areas that were formerly under regime control due to the presence of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). 

The United States (US) government, the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance for Syria, informed the organization to “slow down…let us wait and see what will happen,” the source said. However, this organization and many others have operated in HTS-held parts of Syria’s northwestern Idlib province for many years, including with US government funding, the source added.

HTS, the leading force in Syria’s current transitional government, is sanctioned and listed as a terrorist organization by the US, UN and European Union (EU). Sanctions were imposed in 2014 when a previous version of the group, then known as Jabhat al-Nusra, was Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate before publicly breaking ties in 2016. 

The UN is considering removing HTS from the list of terrorist organizations if certain conditions are met, according to senior officials. The US is reportedly weighing a similar move. 

“In the end, HTS is a terrorist organization controlling these areas. We can’t enter them to respond or anything. We are waiting for the American response, [to see] if they’re going to remove them from the list of terrorist organizations,” the senior INGO source said. “It all depends on the US government.” 

Sanctions on HTS have in the past prevented some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from registering with its affiliated Salvation Government to operate in Idlib, Saria Akkad, a Syrian NGO Alliance (SNA) coordinator, added. SNA is a network of 23 Syrian NGOs that have worked in Syria for more than 10 years. 

“The designation of certain entities [as terrorist organizations], as well as the financial sanctions that are still in place, make it difficult for us to transfer funds to Syria,” Hassan Jenedie, the executive director of Syrian organization Takaful Al Sham, told Syria Direct. Most Syrian banks also remain under sanctions, most notably the Central Bank. 

Still, Syrian organizations operating on the ground “don’t have restrictions like us [INGOs],” the senior source added. Accordingly, they were able to swiftly expand operations into new parts of Syria as they fell out of the regime’s hands since November 27. 

It is work they have been glad to do. “People are joyous, their eyes are dancing that they finished from this tyrannical regime,” Jandali said. “God willing, the future will be better and more beautiful. This alone is enough for us to work.” IYD and other Syrian organizations crossed into Syria from Turkey within days of the armed opposition capturing Aleppo, the first major city to fall, at the end of November. 

Workers from Takaful Al Sham, a Syrian relief organization, distribute bread to civilians in Aleppo city, 30/11/2024 (Takaful Al Sham)

Countless challenges

As of December 10, Syrian aid organizations Takaful Al Sham and Shafak Organization had received the green light from some INGOs and UN organizations to begin bread distribution. However, “there is still a financial deficit as the budgets have not increased,” Takaful Al Sham’s Jenedie told Syria Direct. 

“There was a significant decrease in funding previously, and the opening up of these large areas [to aid actors] led to a huge inability to provide a response,” he added. Previously, most Western-funded NGOs could not operate in regime-held parts of Syria and focused their efforts on opposition- or Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled areas.

Major funding cuts in recent years drastically scaled back the humanitarian response in Syria, leaving organizations strapped for funds and personnel. The UN’s 2024 Syria response plan, calling for $4.1 billion in support, is currently only 31.6 percent funded. In January, the World Food Program (WFP) was forced to suspend all in-kind food assistance in Syria. 

But beyond a lack of funding, Syrian organizations face a myriad of challenges in the new areas that have opened to them. Insecurity, damaged infrastructure and economic sanctions all hinder the work of humanitarian actors, Jenedie said. 

“We have so many challenges so far. First of all the absence of coordination. We’re still waiting for UN-OCHA [the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] to put the new structure in place,” Akkad said. 

Before opposition forces took control of virtually all formerly regime-held parts of Syria, international and local humanitarian actors in Syria, Jordan and Turkey were siloed, each focusing on a different part of the country. The Turkey hub focused on the opposition-held northwest, for example, while the Damascus hub worked in regime-controlled areas. 

“We should have a timeline in order to have one response, being led by one of us. We consider the Gaziantep and Amman hubs [to] have more experience than the hub in Damascus due to the prior constraints by the regime and consequent absence of humanitarian standards,” Akkad said. 

Return, displacement & growing need

While millions of Syrians breathe a sigh of relief and consider returning to parts of the country they were displaced from, the need for humanitarian support on the ground is as urgent as ever.

“The situation is catastrophic, all needs are in demand. There is huge internal displacement that requires everything,” Nihas, from Sened, said.

More than a million Syrians relocated or were displaced as opposition forces seized control of most of the country over the past two weeks. Some fled hostilities, while others returned to homes and communities they were forced out of years ago. Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan have also rushed home to reunite with loved ones and check on their homes.

“I saw a lot of people coming, but they’re coming to see their homes [and assess] if they can move into them or not,” IYD’s Jandali said. Most are “shocked” to find out they cannot return until they repair them, he added.

“They’re poor, they don’t have the means to repair their homes, so they have to wait to see what the NGOs will do.” Until then, “a large portion have returned to their tents” in internal displacement camps, Jandali said.

Read more: ‘Locusts’: Organized looting, destruction of displaced Syrians’ homes by ‘demolition forces’ and regime-affiliated groups

“The situation was extremely bad before, and now it’s become worse because there are no salaries and work has stopped,” Nihas added. 

With the collapse of the former state, government salaries have not been paid and the economy has come to a standstill, sending prices skyrocketing. In Aleppo and Idlib, the cost of bread has increased by 900 percent.

Demand remains high for basic services, such as food, healthcare, education, sanitation, and relief, according to OCHA and Syrian relief organizations that spoke to Syria Direct.

Aid experts have warned that humanitarian assistance alone is neither sustainable nor effective. Rather, they advocate for early recovery—the transition from emergency assistance to long-term development solutions. 

“We have an early recovery strategy for Syria. We need to start implementing that strategy taking into consideration the latest changes,” Akkad said.

“Syria needs everything,” Nihas added. “We’re prepared, we’re working with our basic resources, but we need a sustainable plan to serve this afflicted region.”

Read more: Syrians lose WFP lifeline as US slashes funding

Renewed push for localization

One answer to sustainability could be localization—a term used in the aid sector that refers to “empowering local responders…to respond to crises and promote long-term sustainability,” according to one EU definition. 

Like after the February 2023 earthquake, recent events have shown Syrian NGOs are first to respond on the ground, with access and flexibility that INGOs simply do not have.

In recent years, Syrian organizations have pushed for a more localized approach, calling for funding to be channeled directly through them rather than trickling down from INGOs with high overhead costs. 

Read more: ‘The real response’: Earthquake highlights role of Syrian-led relief organizations amid UN paralysis

One 2016 study on localization argued that Syrian organizations have greater “potential for more appropriate, sustainable and effective humanitarian action” than international aid actors.

But rather than truly localizing aid efforts, Jenedie says INGOs in recent years have bypassed Syrian NGOs, focusing directly on small, community-based organizations (CBOs). “They have all the power, and aren’t allowing others to participate,” he said. 

Jenedie believes Syrian NGOs have been marginalized because they spoke out to demand localization. “They [INGOs] started going to CBOs because they don’t have an international reach with advocacy and pressure like local NGOs have,” he argued.

“Our problem is not shifting the power from local non-profits to community-based organizations but rather how to transfer the power from INGOs to local non-profits and community-based organizations,” he explained.

In a 2023 advocacy paper, the Syrian NGO Alliance identified several barriers to localization, including “limited funding and resources for local actors, a lack of trust between international and local actors and limited opportunities for local actors to engage in decision-making processes.”

“We simply have access,” Akkad concluded. “We don’t have obstacles to immediately support people.”

*Correction 12/13/2024: The initial version of this report mistakenly attributed two statements made by Saria Akkad of the Syrian NGO Alliance to Hassan Jenedie of Takaful Al Sham. Syria Direct regrets the error.