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Counting the cost: Agriculture in Syria after six years of crisis









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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    FAO in the 2017 humanitarian appeals 2016
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    In 2016, FAO reached 21 million crisis-affected people, helping them to produce and purchase food, maintain their livelihoods, stay on or return to their land where it was safe to do so and enabling them to provide for themselves. However, forecasts for 2017 are alarming. Millions of people – many of them children – face the very real threat of starvation in Madagascar, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Drought is once again threatening herders across the Horn of Africa, further under mining livelihoods that have yet to recover from the last drought. In Iraq and Syria, violence continues unabated, forcing people to abandon their homes and agriculture-based livelihoods. This destroys any development gains made and pushes people into food insecurity in the short term, making it harder to return and resume their livelihoods when stability is restored. In 2017, FAO is seeking over USD 1 billion to reach more than 40 million people.
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    Document
    Resilient Livelihoods for Agriculture and Food and Nutrition Security in Areas Affected by the Syria Crisis 2014
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    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is closely monitoring the impact of the Syria crisis on food security, nutrition, agriculture and livelihoods in Syria and neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Assessments carried out across the affected subregion indicate that threats to food security and livelihoods are severe and growing steadily. In addition to rendering over half of Syrians poor and nearly a third food insecure, the crisis is eroding the ver y foundations of food and livelihood security in what was once a middle-income country, with a relatively high employment rate (92 percent) and growing agriculture sector. Syria’s food chain is disintegrating – from production to markets – and entire livelihood systems are collapsing. The conflict also is severely affecting economic, social and human development in neighbouring countries. With most of Syria’s 2.6 million refugees living outside of camps, host communities face intense competition for resources such as land, water and income opportunities, while costs for housing, food and other commodities soar. The humanitarian appeals for Syria and neighbouring countries are the largest in history: USD 4.4 billion in 2013 and USD 6.5 billion in 2014. As the crisis shows no sign of abating, a resilience-based approach is proving ever more crucial to meet immediate needs while helping affected populations – and the systems which support them – better absorb, adapt and recover from curr ent and future shocks emanating from the crisis. Such an approach, combining emergency and development efforts, is indispensable in the context of food and livelihood security. Behind each family pushed into poverty and hunger, systems are collapsing which need to be protected, restored and strengthened. A holistic approach is needed not only to deliver crisisaffected populations from aid dependency, but also to prevent hunger and poverty from increasing and becoming endemic. FAO’s “Resilient Livelihoods for Agriculture and Food and Nutrition Security in Areas Affected by the Syria Crisis” is a five-year Subregional Strategy and Action Plan, budgeted at USD 280 million – just over a tenth of the value of agricultural losses suffered in Syria by 2012. The Strategy is a dynamic document developed over the course of agricultural programming missions to the subregion in late 2013 and early 2014, which build on rapid agricultural livelihood and food security impact assessments and initia l response plans prepared during the first quarter of 2013. With the aim to protect, restore and strengthen livelihoods and the agro-ecosystems on which livelihoods depend, the Strategy tailors short-, medium- and longer-term actions to address specific needs of the main groups affected by the crisis, including Syrian internally displaced persons (IDPs) and affected populations, refugees, returnees, host communities and national and local authorities. Activities focus on seven priority areas, which can be broadly categorized as: (i) control of transboundary animal diseases (TADs); (ii) control of plant pests and diseases; (iii) food security and natural resource information systems, disaster risk management and policy development; (iv) rural and peri-urban income generation and employment; (v) agricultural production; (vi) natural resource management; and (vii) food safety and nutrition. The Strategy aligns with national government priorities and existing regional frameworks for add ressing the Syria crisis and calls for close partnership with affected communities, national institutions, United Nations (UN) agencies, non-state actors and private-sector organizations. Agriculture cannot be an afterthought. Affected populations in the subregion need effective responses to the challenges threatening their food security and livelihoods. A resilience-based approach delivers this, while better preserving the integrity of lives, livelihoods, natural resources and critical develop ment gains achieved over the past decades.
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    Project
    Strengthening of Food Security Information and Early Warning Systems Affected by the Protracted Syrian Crisis - TCP/SYR/3603 2020
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    Rural and agricultural livelihoods in the Syrian Arab Republic have been severely affected since 2011 as a result of economic, environmental and humanitarian factors. Trade sanctions, disrupted supply chains, restricted movement of goods and ailing infrastructure have increased production and transportation costs. In addition, a limited access to productive land due to internal conflict and damage to essential irrigation systems put additional pressure on rural communities, the majority of whom had already been struggling to adapt to decreased rainfall. Consequently, ensuring food and nutrition in rural and agricultural communities has become an especially top priority for the government and for national and international development actors alike. However, current national information systems and data collection protocols specific to food security and early warning systems have proven insufficient vis-à-vis the severity of the national context, thus shedding light on the urgent need to strengthen data and information generation and sharing systems. Planning for emergency, recovery and development interventions in the absence of regular, robust and reliable food security data has made it more challenging to respond to the country’s priorities.

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