THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD FOOD

Published purpose

February 2023 – The humanitarian situation in Türkiye and Syria deteriorated significantly following powerful earthquakes that struck south-east Türkiye and north-west Syria on February 6 and February 20. The earthquakes and aftershocks resulted in widespread damages and high casualties in both countries. The UN estimates that at least 9.1 million people in Turkey and 8.8 million people in Syria have been affected by the earthquake, with the majority anticipated to need some form of humanitarian assistance in the coming months. In Türkiye, a state of emergency was declared in 10 provinces as people were left without access to shelter, food, water, heaters and medical care in harsh winter conditions. In Syria, the response is further complicated by pre-existing large scale humanitarian needs, severe access constraints for humanitarian aid, and weak infrastructure from over a decade of armed conflict. With GAC’s support, WFP is leading the emergency food assistance response in Türkiye and Syria. WFP is reaching over 1,700,000 earthquake-affected people in both countries with emergency in-kind food distributions and multi-purpose cash assistance. This project aims to support the emergency scale up of WFP’s operations, including the distribution of family food packages, nutritional supplements and emergency cash. Project activities include: (1) distributing emergency food assistance; and (2) providing multi-purpose cash assistance.