Aid Groups Describe a Failed Response on Syria As Airstrikes Loom

— -- As the U.S. and its allies move towards strikes in Syria, aiming to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State, aid groups say the world has already failed in its response to the Syrian crisis. A new Oxfam report says that the international community has failed on three fronts: insufficient aid, meager resettlement offers for refugees and continued arms and ammunition transfers, fueling the fight.

A Fairer Deal for Syrians details how three years into the conflict, $7.7 billion worth of humanitarian appeals have only been 43.5 percent funded, while extremist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra undermine efforts to provide cross-border aid approved by the U.N. in July.

The report also posits that the crisis has posed serious risk to the security and stability of neighboring countries, namely the continuing destabilization of Iraq. The major challenge highlighted remains the mobilization of the international community.

"The sheer scale of this crisis demands increased commitments from members of the international community to help alleviate the suffering: to fully fund the aid response, to offer refugees resettlement, and to halt the transfer of arms and ammunition," says Daniel Gorevan, Oxfam's Syria policy lead and the author of the report. Here he shares what the humanitarian community says must be done.

Syria Deeply: What are specific commitments the international community should be taking in Syria?

Daniel Gorevan: Oxfam has developed three key indicators to help guide the level of commitment that each wealthy country should make in order to fairly alleviate the suffering of those affected by the Syria crisis. They are based on three principles: the level of funding each country makes available for the humanitarian response, relative to the size of its economy (based on gross national income); the number of Syrian refugees each country has helped to find safety through offers of resettlement or other forms of humanitarian protection, again based on the size of the economy; and each country’s commitment to taking practical action to end violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by halting transfers of arms and ammunition.

Syria Deeply: What is the current funding gap? What are the consequences of it?

Gorevan: The U.N. has launched its largest ever humanitarian appeal for Syria. The Oxfam analysis looked at the U.N. appeals, which, well over halfway through the year, are only 43.5 percent funded. This is a massive shortfall.

Not to mention that this is taking into account that the U.N. cut back its requests for funds from the international community midway through its cycle.

Other agencies like the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have their own appeals, as do the governments of Jordan and Lebanon.

An aggregate of all of these appeals puts the total need at $7.7 billion.

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