syria-un-20160330 4

www.unocha.org The mission of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors. Mr. President, As you know, as humanitarians, our objective is not political and it is not military. It is about providing emergency aid and protection to people in desperate need and precarious circumstances, wherever they are in Syria. For that to become reality, however, the recent opening of access to some locations must only be the start of a step change in access. Access has to go beyond allowing more aid convoys to deliver limited supplies. We need to move beyond the notion that one-off, ad hoc distributions of assistance to a given besieged or hard-to-reach location is somehow sufficient and acceptable, because it is not and never will be. To even begin to address the full range of humanitarian and protection needs in these areas, what we need is a permanent stop to the fighting, an end to the sieges, and safe, sustained, unconditional and unimpeded access so that we can meaningfully reach all those in need as often as is required and by whatever route is necessary. We also need civilians to be able to move freely in and out of areas to access basic services and assistance. And we need it now, before it is too late. Mr. President, I want to pay tribute to the courageous humanitarian organizations and workers who collectively come together to help millions of people each month through all available routes. In February, the World Food Programme, for example, delivered food for 3.8 million people; UNICEF provided water, sanitation and hygiene supplies for over 1.5 million people; WHO delivered over 800,000 treatments; and UNHCR delivered support for almost 500,000 people. Our NGO partners also continue to assist hundreds of thousands of people each month – both from within Syria and across borders. Over the past weeks, the United Nations and partners have scaled up assistance to people in need, including cross-border assistance from Turkey to meet the needs of the over 60,000 people newly displaced close to the Turkish border due to the heavy fighting and aerial bombardment in Aleppo governorate throughout February before the start of the Cessation of Hostilities. Mr. President, Our challenge now is to scale up assistance further to reach the level required. We are ready to take advantage of any opportunity to assist people in need. On 15 March, five years into the conflict in Syria, 102 humanitarian agencies called for immediate and sustained access in Syria. I repeat that call today, particularly for the parties to the conflict and Member States with influence to guarantee: Full access for humanitarian and medical workers to assess the wellbeing of civilians in all communities and treat those who are sick and injured without obstacle or restriction