1 Introduction
1. The UK's development assistance programmes
have traditionally prioritised sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
rather than the Middle East.[1]
In recent years, the Syrian Civil War and consequent humanitarian
crisis have led to a significant increase in DFID activity in
the region.[2] The UK has
committed £600 million in humanitarian assistance since the
crisis began.[3] Scrutinising
the UK's work on the Syria crisis was in our view imperative,
on account of the scale of the humanitarian needs.
Our inquiry
2. We launched our inquiry in December
2013. We set out to examine both the UK's humanitarian response
to the Syria crisis, and DFID's bilateral programme in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (OPTs.) This report deals with the Syria
crisis; we will publish a separate report on DFID's work in the
OPTs.
3. In Chapter 2 we examine the humanitarian
situation inside Syria and the UK's response; in Chapter 3 we
do the same for neighbouring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan.
Chapter 4 then compares the UK's response with that of other international
donors.
4. We received 61 pieces of written
evidence from a wide range of individuals and organisations including
academics, UN organisations and NGOs. We also held three oral
evidence sessions. Those giving evidence on the Syria crisis included
Rt Hon Alan Duncan MP, the Minister of State for International
Development; and representatives of the World Food Programme (WFP),
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). A full
list of witnesses is included at the back of this report. We also
visited the region during March 2014, gathering evidence both
for this report and for our forthcoming report on the OPTs. We
visited projects throughout the region and met a range of Ministers,
NGOs and DFID staff: this was invaluable to our understanding
of the region. Finally, we are grateful to Eva Svoboda of the
Overseas Development Institute (ODI) for serving as our Specialist
Adviser in this inquiry.
1 DFID, Annual Report and Accounts 2011-12 (June 2012),
pp. 199-201 Back
2
DFID, Annual Report and Accounts 2012-13 (June 2013), p 224 Back
3
DFID, UK Aid Syria Response (June 2014), p 1 Back
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