The United Nations is readying food stocks for 1.5 million people in Syria as part of a 90-day emergency plan to help civilians deprived of basic supplies after nearly a year of conflict. The world body awaited the results of a three-day visit to Syria by UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who is seeking to gain access for its aid agencies which have been shut out.
"More needs to be done," John Ging of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told a one-day Syria Humanitarian Forum on Thursday. "There is a huge amount of concern." The United Nations has drawn up a 90-day aid plan of $105 million likely to translate into a funding appeal to donors, diplomats and UN sources said.
"The UN side of the humanitarian community is looking at the process of additional food stocks pre-positioned to target 1.5 million people," said Ging, director of OCHA's co-ordination and response division who chaired the meeting. Ging, speaking later to reporters, said that aid agencies and donors were united in wanting to help, but faced challenges.
"All of us know that we should be judged on the result on the ground. We're working very hard on the humanitarian community side to deliver a better result for the people of Syria. That's the simple bottom line." Ging said that he was pleased that Syria's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, had taken part in the talks. Ging is to issue a chair's statement on Friday. "You have to start somewhere, you are not going to make progress if you are talking to yourself," Ging told reporters.
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