Pledges of billions from donor countries... Why do the conditions of the Syrian people not improve?

Northern Syria

- “If it wasn’t for the money that my son, who resides in Turkey, sends me every month, we would starve.” With this sentence, the displaced Syrian resident in Idlib countryside, Muhammad Al-Assaf, describes the condition of his family of 5 members who have lived in a camp for the displaced for 7 years.

Al-Assaf, 61, told Al-Jazeera Net that his son, who works in a sewing workshop in Turkey, sends them about 500 lira (30 US dollars) every month, which makes them able to provide the food they need to survive.

This elderly displaced person indicates that he suffers from severe inflammation of the nerves and suffers from excruciating pain in his back and feet, and is no longer able to work to secure his family's expenses, while humanitarian organizations provide the camp residents with only a basket of aid from time to time.

When Al-Assaf was asked about the Brussels conference of donor countries to support the Syrian people that was held recently and in which he pledged to provide more than 5 billion euros, the displaced denied his knowledge of the conference, calling on Islamic countries to remove the Syrian regime from power “so that the displaced return to their homes.”

Below the poverty line

The Al-Assaf family is among the more than 1.5 million displaced Syrians who live in nearly 1,500 camps distributed among the geographical areas under opposition control in northwest Syria, including 452 random camps that do not receive any humanitarian aid.

Thousands of Syrian families are threatened with starvation, and tomorrow is unknown (Al-Jazeera)

The population of the opposition-controlled areas is estimated at 5 million people, more than half of whom are displaced from their homes from various Syrian cities and towns. They came to the northwest through waves of forced displacement imposed by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad on them.

On the other hand, the population in the regime-controlled areas has reached 9 million and 400 thousand, according to a study conducted by the Jusoor Center for Studies, on the demographic structure in Syria.

Syrians in the various areas of control are facing stifling living crises in light of the deterioration of the economy and the continuation of the conflict. About 12.4 million people, nearly 60% of the Syrian population, suffer from food insecurity and do not know where their next meal will come from, according to the World Food Program.

The United Nations estimates that 90% of the Syrian people live below the poverty line, in light of the high prices, the high cost of living and the collapse of the value of the lira against the dollar.

Donor countries

In the sixth edition of the Brussels Conference, which was held with the participation of the United Nations - which had been sponsoring it over the previous years - the international community pledged nearly 6.4 billion euros for 2022 and beyond.

According to the European Union website, the pledges will provide funding to Syrians at home, and to neighboring countries that have been hosting millions of Syrian refugees, since the beginning of the war in the country.

But Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the United Nations, spoke, prior to the conference, about the need for $10.5 billion in 2022 to fully support Syrians, host communities and countries in need.

The numbers of pledges at the last conference seem shocking and disappointing, according to the director of the "Syria Response Coordinators" team, Muhammad Hallaj, if the value of previous pledges were compared during the conference, which did not implement more than 60% of the announced amounts.

Hallaj said - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - that despite the new and old pledges, the reality confirms that there are more than 650 camps for displaced Syrians that are not provided with potable water, and more than 800 camps do not receive regular food aid, as an example of the many examples.

Humanitarian organizations describe the pledges of donor countries to the Syrian people as disappointing (Al-Jazeera)

Hallaj believed that the return of displaced Syrians and refugees from various regions to their cities and villages is the best solution to end the suffering that has been going on for 11 years, and it is the only guarantee for the return of stability to Syria and the region.

non-binding

Despite the hopes placed on donors' pledges to ease the impact of the successive crises on the Syrian people, international and local variables and circumstances control the mechanism for the arrival of these sums and limit their size.

Syrian economic expert Younes al-Karim confirms that financial pledges are not binding on donor countries, and in most cases, the amount announced during special conferences on Syria in Brussels over the past years is reduced.

On the method of delivering pledges, Al-Karim told Al-Jazeera Net that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of each country is undertaking the process of paying what it owes to civil society organizations, according to a plan approved by the donors' conference to support a specific sector of activities in Syria.

Al-Karim considered that there are things that waste money on the Syrian people, most notably the randomness of work, the lack of transparency and an action plan for humanitarian organizations, the lack of use of real expertise, in addition to royalties obtained by military forces in areas of influence and control.