UNHCR’s main governmental counterpart in Syria is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2012. Line ministries essential for UNHCR’s work include the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (MoSAL), the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment (MoLAE) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI). UNHCR’s position as lead agency for the Protection/Community Services, Shelter and NFI sectors makes it a key player in the coordination structure of the Whole of Syria, coordinating with the hubs in Gaziantep and Amman. In the Damascus hub, the Shelter sector is co-led by UNHCR and MoLAE, whereas the NFI Sector is led by UNHCR, in close coordination with SARC. SARC is the key humanitarian agency in Syria, entrusted by the Government of Syria with overseeing operational assistance. UNHCR Syria currently has partnership agreements with five international NGOs, 16 national NGOs, two governmental entities, and one UN agency (UNOPS). With the new emerging needs in Syria, the number of partners and partnership agreements is expected to increase. In addition, UNHCR has concluded cooperation agreements with UNDP and FAO on enhanced livelihood/self-reliance interventions and is working on establishing similar agreements with other UN agencies.
In the volatile security environment, partnerships with local NGOs are essential in order to reach out to the displaced and other crisis-affected affected populations. UNHCR will continue expanding its network of national NGO partners to ensure adequate response to the protection and assistance needs of people of concern. This is being also conducted in connection with the ongoing decentralization process of the operation. This implies more investment in capacity-building, including on key humanitarian and protection principles, inter alia, to ensure reconciliation of the protection and humanitarian imperatives with due respect of the ‘do no harm’ principle. All protection partners have been involved in the needs assessments carried out in July 2016 with some 6,000 members of IDP and host communities in 123 sub-districts, which fed into the 2018 planning. They were also consulted in the planning process and endorsed the plan’s protection and solutions strategy. The implementation of this strategy will be largely entrusted to NGO partners as far as the delivery of assistance and protection services is concerned.
UNHCR is also engaged in the two-year “Strategic Framework for Cooperation between the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the United Nations”, which builds upon humanitarian assistance and summarizes the collective efforts in resilience programming in Syria, with three main objectives: capacity building of institutions; restoring basic and social services; and improving the socio-economic resilience of the Syrian people. UNHCR participates in the Strategic Framework, in view of eventual return and reintegration, and contributes towards specific outputs under the above-mentioned objectives, including: Targeted institutions formulate policies, strategies, plans and resilience programs that are responsive to people’s needs, particularly the most vulnerable groups; Housing and essential infrastructure are rehabilitated in priority urban and rural areas; Social and economic needs of the most vulnerable groups are identified and addressed.