United Kingdom -  IOM Director General William Lacy Swing will travel to London on Thursday 4th February for the ‘Supporting Syria and the Region 2016’ pledging conference. The event will be co-hosted by the UN, UK, Germany, Kuwait and Norway.

The conference aims to rally international financial support to address humanitarian and development needs inside Syria and the region, bringing together world leaders from around the globe in order to raise money to support those who have been affected by the ongoing Syria crisis.

Kuwait hosted the previous three pledging conferences in January 2013 and 2014, and March 2015.

Approaching its sixth year into the crisis, the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate. With 13.5 million people in need and 6.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), the need for humanitarian assistance continues to reach over multiple sectors ranging from shelter to protection, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health.

According to the latest UN Humanitarian Needs Overview, 8.7 million people are considered food insecure, 7.5 million are need of non-food item (NFI) and shelter support, and 12.1 million are in need of WASH assistance.

Six million are children and 4.5 million are in hard-to-reach locations, while 360,000 continue to remain trapped in 15 besieged locations. The 2016 UN inter-agency appeal for the Syria Crisis amounts to USD 7.73 billion.

Apart from addressing the imminent needs, the conference will also set itself ambitious goals for education and economic opportunities to support the lives of Syrian refugees, as well as the countries hosting them.

As part of the inter-agency appeal, IOM is requesting USD 254 million – USD 150 million for its operations inside Syria, including through its cross-border hubs in Turkey and Jordan, and USD 105 million under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan.

To date, IOM has assisted 5.4 million refugees inside Syria and almost 800,000 in the region with NFIs and shelter support, health activities, transportation assistance, psychosocial support, and livelihood programmes.

Funding for the 2015 UN appeals has reached USD 3.3 billion of an appeal for USD 8.4 billion. “The international community needs to do more and raise new funding to address the short and long term needs of millions of Syrians affected in Syria and neighbouring countries,” said IOM Director of Operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker.

For further information, please contact Geraldine Ansart at IOM HQ, Tel. +41 79 250 02 28, Email: gansart@iom.int  or the Syria Crisis Coordination team, Email: scc@iom.int