Syrian Arab Republic: At a glance | Urgently Prioritized Humanitarian Response Priorities 2025

Syria entered a new era in 2025 however the humanitarian situation remains dire. The continued decline in humanitarian funding was further exacerbated following funding-cuts by the United States. From 1 January to 30 June 2025, the UN and humanitarian partners appealed for US$ 2 billion to cover prioritized activities to respond to the most immediate needs of 8 million of the most vulnerable people. The Syria Humanitarian Response Priorities for January to June 2025 is severely underfunded, with only 15.9 per cent of the $2 billion total requirements secured. The appeal has been expanded to cover the entire year and now requests for $3.19 billion to respond to the needs of 10.3 million people in need targeted countrywide.

In 2024, the Syria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) was only funded at 36.6 per cent of the requested over $4.074 billion. Historically, the Syria HRP has never been fully funded and in recent years, the allocated funding resources has been on a steady decline. The slow funding that is largely incommensurate to the needs has continued to hinder the ability of humanitarian organizations to respond in a timely and effective manner.

Aligning with the global ‘Humanitarian Reset’ framework that was launched in early 2025 by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Principals and the Emergency Relief Coordinator which amongst others calls for re-prioritization of humanitarian efforts to reach people and places facing the most urgent humanitarian needs, and to prioritize life-saving support based on the existing planning for the 2025 humanitarian
response.

The Syria ‘urgent prioritization of humanitarian response priorities’ followed the following approach:

1. Areas with the highest levels of severity of needs (severity levels 4 and 5 ) as categorized in Joint and Intersectoral Analysis Framework (JIAF) 2.0 were prioritized. Severity levels 4 and 5 represent extreme crisis situations with high life-threatening risks.
2. Activities that fall under strategic objective 1 (life-saving). These are activities that contribute to urgent life-saving responses.
3. Other urgent needs that if left unaddressed will contribute to a further aggravation of the humanitarian situation, and/or expose extremely vulnerable people in need to protection threats and risks.

The humanitarian community calls for the hyper prioritization of the Humanitarian Response Priorities to be complemented by strengthened advocacy and resource mobilization efforts for new and additional funding resources in support of the response, particularly at this critical time. Without adequate funding, humanitarian partners will not only be unable to respond to the assessed needs, but there are risks of losing the progress that have been achieved.