Official Statistics

UK humanitarian aid and spend in Syria: data sources and methods

Updated 22 October 2024

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The UK Syria Crisis Response summary covers humanitarian and development activities in Syria supported by the FCDO, it includes:

• the context of the crisis and the population in need of humanitarian aid
• results of the reported financial year for FCDO UK Office for Syria humanitarian and development programming
• cumulative results from the entire regional response by the FCDO
• Cumulative spend to date across all FCDO directorates and posts that contribute ODA to programming related to the UK Response to the Syria crisis

The statistics reported voluntarily comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The document is released annually following the collection, quality assurance, and aggregation of reported financial year results. The purpose of this methodology is to outline the sources of the FCDO funding figures and key results mentioned in the summary.

Background data sources

‘Facts of the Crisis’ covers information provided by:

• The Humanitarian Needs Overview for humanitarian population statistics, retrieved May 2024
• The Global Humanitarian Overview for funding appeal requirements (including regional funding requirement for crisis support), retrieved February 2024
• The CIA Factbook for total population statistics, retrieved July 2024
• The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights for casualty statistics, last estimated in 2021, retrieved July 2024

Definitions

• FCDO: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
• ODA: Official Development Assistance
• Syria crisis: the regional crisis that began in 2012
• implementing partner: organisations funded by the FCDO
• result: a verified figure of activities and deliverables by implementing partners
• third-party monitoring: an independent organisation who conducts monitoring of implementing partner(s) activities

Key results sources and methodology

Data source

• the key results included in the summary represent contributions from multiple partners
• all data is secondary and provided by implementing partners
• data is provided to FCDO by implementing partners, who quality assure it before submission
• published results reflect high-level summaries of key programming sectors
• where FCDO contributes to a pooled fund or multilateral mechanism, results are proportional according to the UK financial contribution against the total fund. If data integrity is unreliable then the results are not included in this summary

Reporting, communication, and accuracy

• results provided in the summary represent the key results achieved by implementing partners under the response, who have a direct programme goal to deliver aid to affected Syrians
• where possible, FCDO encourages implementing partners to use our set of core indicators to ensure results are relevant
• results linked to number of units provided (eg food rations, cash grants, medical consultations) are cumulative from the start of the crisis until the end of the reported financial year
• given the range of data sources used, the accuracy of results is subject to the quality of the underlying data source. Data presented is collected by implementing partners, who are provided the following assistance and communication to set expectations:
  • implementing partners are given guidance on best practices for data collection and quality assurance. This includes the requirement that implementing partners do not double count beneficiaries (if applicable)
  • implementing partners are advised on data disaggregation requirements.
  • implementing partners are provided training on how to use the Results, Evidence, and Exchange (REX) platform and FCDO’s expectations
  • advisers routinely work with programme teams and their implementing partners to ensure results accuracy and evaluate that indicators are fit for purpose
  • third-party monitoring is used to establish that data collection practices are maintained
• accredited members of the Government Statistical Service or Government Social Research group in FCDO undertake quality assurance of the data. The FCDO quality assurance process is as follows:
  • null fields: data is checked for missing values and/or fields. When identified, FCDO requests corrections from implementing partners
  • field errors: fields are checked for correct data categorisation. Partners are provided with a template to input data correctly
  • mid-year and end-year results: partners provide results overviews every 3 months, and disaggregated results datasets every 6 months. These results are monitored to ensure consistency over time, both in year and for programme duration
  • sense checks: data is compared to previous year(s) targets and results across programmes, and previous annual publications of the factsheet.
  • attribution: attribution is agreed with implementing partners, FCDO will also check the correct attribution is reported by the implementing partner in their dataset
  • double counting and aggregation: where multiple implementing partners provide data that overlaps in both indicator and disaggregation fields, the max value is taken to prevent double counting or duplication. This reduces data uncertainty

Timeliness

• the time-period the results provided cover is stated in the document. However, some implementing partners may have different reporting cycles and a minority of results may go beyond this time frame by 1 or 2 months
• implementing partners are expected to submit data twice in a given financial year. This is done no later than 6 weeks after the end date of the data timeframe

Caveats and limitations

• results data is collected in a complex and challenging operational context, inaccuracies are expected and FCDO and implementing partners attempt to minimise errors and risk where possible
• FCDO implementing partners submit a variety of results, relevant results are aligned to the FCDO UK Office for Syria core indicator list to enable aggregation. Implementing partner results that cannot be aggregated are not included
• data collection and quality assurance is performed by implementing partners, results data is a secondary source of information. Third-party monitoring (external and independent monitoring and evaluation) is utilised to verify activities and implementing partner processes to ensure confidence in partner results
• some results may be excluded if the implementing partner does not submit data within the required timeframe
• the aggregation process, in mitigating against double counting, will lead to results being underreported in the published result
• funding data is not inclusive of all bilateral ODA spend. For official figures on total ODA spend, please refer to the Statistics on International Development publications

FCDO funding sources and definitions

‘Committed’ refers to the cumulative amount the UK has publicly pledged to the Syria crisis response to date.

‘Spent by FCDO’ refers to actual expenditure incurred by FCDO implementing partners from the beginning of the UK Syria crisis response in February 2012 and up to the end of the reported financial year or relevant quarter.

• spend calculated only considers Official Development Assistance (ODA) funded projects and programmes that have a direct or indirect benefit to Syrian’s affected by the Syria crisis
• this includes ODA-eligible expenditure from the UK Integrated Security Fund (ISF), formerly known as the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). It is not reflective of all ISF spend over time
• ODA eligible ISF spend has only been incorporated in the total since April 2016

‘Turkey’ includes contributions from the FCDO EU Directorate (a regional office) towards the FRIT programme.

‘Iraq’ spend was included until 2014. In 2014, Iraq ODA spend has been attributed to the UK Iraq Crisis Response as the expansion of Daesh established a distinct crisis in Iraq.

‘Egypt’ spend was discontinued in 2014 as Syria Crisis ODA was directed towards Syria and neighbouring countries.

‘Regional’ spend previously accounted for wider total operating costs (ToC) directed towards the Syria crisis. Since 2023, regional ODA spend for the Syria crisis was merged under relevant country spends.

Indicator definitions

WASH: Water, sanitation, and hygiene – number of people reached

Water activities focus on the distribution of clean and safe drinking water for beneficiaries, seeking to either increase water access for regions experiencing water shortages, or to increase safe water access for regions experience ill effects from water not deemed safe for consumption. Sanitation activities include activities that seek to prevent human contact with the hazards of waste (eg waste management, latrines, and sewage systems). Hygiene activities seek to preserve the health and cleanliness of individuals. These may include awareness sessions, training, and provision of non-food items including hygiene kits, soap, shampoo, and so on.

SRH/GBV: sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence – number of people reached

This indicator combines 2 protection indicators and takes the maximum value of one or the other per geography and partner. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services can include family planning, maternal and newborn care, post-rape treatment, and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, amongst many other services. Gender based violence (GBV) service/intervention designed to address the needs of victims of gender-based violence (eg preventative measures such as physical safety interventions or initiatives to change the culture of violence, or responsive – counselling or safe houses).

Agriculture and livelihood interventions – number of people reached

Agricultural and Livelihood interventions are facilitated primarily through early recovery mechanisms, focussing on providing beneficiaries of agricultural households with sustainable interventions and resilience capacity. Interventions range from vocational training to local infrastructure development that improves agricultural security, economic resilience, and longer-term growth.

Nutrition: young children, expecting mothers, and mothers – number of people reached

Nutrition specifically targets young children under the age of five, as well as pre- and post-natal mothers. Most nutrition-based aid encompasses dietary healthcare improvement for young children and mothers, though also includes wider support services such as malnutrition screening and food packages.

Healthcare – number of people reached

This support covers people provided with medical consultations, vaccinations, or rehabilitation services. It is facilitated through both permanent and temporary healthcare facilities that are either managed exclusively or supported by public organisations and/or private bodies.

Education: primary/secondary – total children reached

Education, whether primary or secondary, is institutionalised, intentional, and planned education facilitated through both public organisations and/or private bodies which constitutes the formal education system of a country. Formal education programmes are recognised by the relevant national education authorities or equivalent bodies. This indicator does not blend formal and informal education, where many children supported within informal education systems are a subset of formal education.

Food: rations – cumulative ration/food packs provided

A full food ration meets or comes close to meeting the Sphere standard for one individual’s daily nutritional requirements. It is cumulative since the start of the crisis.

Multi-sector: cash grants – cumulative people reached with cash grants

Cash grants counts the number of individuals supported with cash grants for beneficiaries to cover basic needs such as: food, household items, clothing, kitchen utensils, paying rent, etc. Results here are not indicative of the total value of cash grants provided to beneficiaries. It is cumulative since the start of the crisis.

Health: medical consultations – cumulative consultations provided

This includes trauma care consultation and non-trauma care consultations. Trauma care includes specialised health care provided to individuals suffering from traumatic injuries, whether they are war related or not (eg injuries due to shelling, landmines, gunshot wounds, vehicle collisions, domestic injuries). Non trauma care includes primary, secondary and tertiary (non-trauma only) healthcare consultations. Primary healthcare is generally the first point of contact for someone when they contract an illness, suffer an injury or experience symptoms that are new to them. It can be a ‘gateway’ to receiving more specialist care through referral to secondary (disease specialists) or tertiary (highly specialised expertise mostly dealing with inpatients) health care levels, when the case cannot be managed at primary level. It is cumulative since the start of the crisis.