Country: Syrian Arab Republic Sources: GOAL, Innovation Consulting & Solutions Please refer to the attached file. This Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) provides a broad evidence base on food security, nutrition, and WASH conditions across 11 governorates of Syria at a time of continued humanitarian fragility. The raw dataset comprised 6, 687 household interviews across 44 districts; following data cleaning and quality assurance, the final analytical dataset included 5, 302 households across 39 districts. Overall, 91% of households surveyed were classified as food insecure, of which 44% were moderately or severely food insecure according to the Consolidated Approach to Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI) framework. Food insecurity is driven less by physical food availability than by affordability: 44% of households reported relying on cheaper or less preferred foods, 22% reduced the number of meals eaten, and 36% spent more than half of total household expenditure on food. Half of all households were using Crisis or Emergency livelihood coping strategies, indicating that many are meeting current food needs only by eroding future resilience. Severity was particularly high in AsSalamiyeh (Hama), Abu Kamal (Deir-ez-Zor), Hama district (Hama), Al Makhrim (Homs), Ar-Rastan (Homs), and As-Suqaylabiyah (Hama). Female-headed households, households headed by persons with disabilities, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) consistently showed worse food security outcomes than comparison groups. Nutrition findings point to substantial dietary vulnerability. Among children aged 6–23 months, only 18% met the Minimum Acceptable Diet standard, with low dietary diversity emerging as the principal constraint. Among assessed women, only 31% met Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women. Infant feeding practices were mixed: while 82% of infants aged 0–5 months were reportedly breastfed in the previous 24 hours, only 31% were breastfed within the first hour after birth, and 39% received prelacteal feeding. Broader nutrition results, together with qualitative evidence, indicate meaningful nutritional risk and significant barriers to treatment access. WASH findings reveal relatively high headline access to basic services, but serious weaknesses in reliability, infrastructure quality, and environmental health. Using strict World Health Organization (WHO)/ United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) 2017 definitions, 78% of households accessed an improved water source, but 22% relied primarily on water tankers. More importantly, 57% of households reported interruptions to water supply in the previous three months, and 14% experienced frequent interruptions. Sanitation coverage was high overall, yet specific districts showed major gaps, including no-toilet access in As-Sweida district (As-Sweida) and severe open sewage problems in Al-Qusayr (Homs), Tall Kalakh (Homs), Darayya (Rural Damascus), and Al Bab (Aleppo). Solid waste collection was absent for 27% of households, and hygiene promotion coverage was extremely low at just 9%. Diarrhoea prevalence among households with children under five was 14% overall, with major hotspots in Darayya (Rural Damascus), Abu Kamal (Deir-ez-Zor), Al-Haffa (Lattakia), Ar-Rastan (Homs), and Harim (Idleb). The assessment recommends an integrated, area-based response that combines food security, nutrition, and WASH interventions in the districts with the highest severity, particularly As-Salamiyeh (Hama), Abu Kamal (Deir-ez-Zor), Hama district (Hama), Al Makhrim (Homs), Ar-Rastan (Homs), and AsSuqaylabiyah (Hama). Given that affordability rather than food availability is the main driver of need, unrestricted cash and voucher assistance should be prioritised and regularly adjusted to market prices, while also covering essential non-food needs. Programmes should explicitly prioritise female-headed households, households headed by persons with disabilities, and IDP households, as these groups consistently face more severe food insecurity, weaker dietary outcomes, and greater access barriers across sectors. To prevent further erosion of resilience, emergency assistance should be complemented by livelihoods support, especially in areas where Crisis and Emergency coping strategies are widespread. Small-scale income-generating activities, home-based businesses, and women-friendly livelihoods opportunities should be promoted to reduce reliance on negative coping such as child labour, school dropout, and distress borrowing. For returnees, integrated support packages that combine food assistance, livelihood recovery, and rehabilitation of basic services are particularly important. In nutrition, the response should expand community-based malnutrition screening and treatment, especially in districts where poor child dietary diversity and treatment barriers are most acute. Nutrition services should be made more accessible through community outreach, home-based approaches, and financial support to offset treatment and transport costs. Infant and young child feeding interventions should focus on reducing pre-lacteal feeding, promoting early breastfeeding initiation, and improving complementary feeding through a combination of counselling and support for access to diverse foods. Maternal nutrition should also be strengthened through improved iron and folic acid supplementation, better access to antenatal care, and targeted support in districts with the lowest dietary diversity among women. In WASH, the priority is to rehabilitate water systems in districts with poor network access and frequent interruptions, while reducing dependence on water trucking. Immediate sanitation improvements are needed in areas with severe open sewage problems and in IDP settings where toilet access remains inadequate. Solid waste management services should be expanded in underserved districts, particularly where collection systems are weak or absent. Hygiene promotion should be urgently scaled up, especially in diarrhoea hotspots, using trusted community-based channels and female outreach workers. Across all sectors, programmes should be designed as integrated packages rather than stand-alone interventions. Districts facing overlapping food insecurity, dietary vulnerability, and WASH deficits should receive combined assistance that addresses the full set of household needs. Finally, future monitoring should strengthen district-level tracking of food security trends and improve nutrition measurement, particularly MUAC data collection, to support more precise targeting and more robust evidence for programme adaptation.
Syria: Muti-Sector Needs Assessment – Full Report 2026
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