Sectoral impact:
Syria continues to face a deepening nutrition crisis for the most vulnerable groups which include infants, young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and adolescent girls. Prolonged conflict, economic collapse, displacement, and underfunded humanitarian responses are the main drivers resulting in constrained access to nutritious diets, suboptimal feeding practices, and outbreaks of water-borne diseases and vaccine preventable diseases which directly contribute to both chronic and acute undernutrition (wasting, underweight and stunting).
In 2025, the Nutrition Sector estimates that 6.4 million people need nutrition assistance in Syria. Among these, more than 600,000 children under 5 years are acutely malnourished and require treatment to save their lives. Of these children, more than 177,000 of them are severely wasted, which is a devastating child survival emergency. Children who are wasted have weak immune systems, leaving them vulnerable to developmental delays, disease and death. Additionally, more than 690,000 children under five years suffer from stunting with stunting rates having increased from 12.6 per cent to in 2019, to 16.1 per cent in 2023. Stunted children are at higher risk of developmental delays, reduced academic performance, and lower adult wages.
The RNA conducted in February 2025 revealed that less than 25 per cent of respondents have access to essential nutrition services, including malnutrition screening, feeding counselling, and treatment for malnutrition.
A Nutrition Sector services coverage analysis conducted between March-April 2025, highlighted poor coverage of both preventive and curative nutrition services in 2024, and high unmet needs in several governorates, especially As-Sweida, Al-Hasakeh, Ar-Raqqa, Damascus, Deir-ez-Zor, Rural Damascus, Dar’a, and hard-to-reach areas in Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Idlib. Through consultations with subnational sector coordinators, several recommendations were made to address the gaps, which include:
- Raising awareness among caregivers on malnutrition, infant and young child feeding and prevention of childhood diseases.
- Establishing CMAM centres in priority areas.
- Integrate nutrition services with all health services within PHCs and child and maternity hospitals.
- establishing mobile teams for locations with no services.
- Activate and train community volunteers in areas where services are insufficient.
According to key partners and technical experts in Syria, the fragile health and nutrition infrastructure limits access to services, compounded by long distances to service delivery sites and limited availability of community-level preventative and treatment services.
Amid ongoing health service realignments by the Ministry of Health (MoH), several facilities have suspended CMAM services due to staffing gaps and untrained personnel. Field monitoring visits and engagement with MoH counterparts have also revealed gaps on infant and young child feeding programme, with frontline nutrition service providers lacking capacity to provide the lifesaving infant and young child feeing services to pregnant and lactating women (PLWs) and primary caregivers of children below two years of age.
Funding challenges facing the nutrition sector
The poor reach against the people in need of nutrition services in Syria, as shown by the analysis of 2024 nutrition data, was mainly due to severe underfunding of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions, exacerbated by the recent suspension of funding by the United States, leading to service delivery gaps and facility closures, especially in Northern Syria.
Following the United States Executive Orders in 2025, the nutrition sector is currently facing significant challenges and an inability to provide essential curative nutrition interventions in Al-Hasakeh governorate, specifically support for the treatment of severe wasting cases with complications, due to a lack of funding for stabilization centres. The main partners who support this intervention are currently facing substantial financial shortfalls, resulting in 1,909 severe wasting cases with complications remaining untreated and under a high risk of mortality.
In Aleppo and Idlib, Syria, a total of 13 nutrition projects, implemented by eight nutrition partners, were impacted, affecting a total of 40,130 children and 17,705 pregnant and lactating women. A total of 17 health facilities and 116 mobile health and nutrition teams have been affected. A total of 213 communities that previously received services through the 116 mobile health and nutrition services no longer have access to preventative and curative nutrition services. Among the affected nutrition sites are five stabilization centres, for management of children with severe acute malnutrition and medical complications (four in Idleb and one in Aleppo). Additional, community nutrition surveillance was significantly affected by the funding cuts.
If the low funding is not urgently addressed, it will likely lead to unprecedented levels of malnutrition and mortality among the most vulnerable children, especially those suffering from the most severe form of malnutrition (severe acute malnutrition especially in the sub districts with high concentration of returnees
Immediate needs:
- Maintain and expand the delivery of life-saving preventative and curative nutrition interventions for conflict-affected and displaced populations, targeting children under 5, pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls, with more attention to the locations (sub districts) with very low reach within the above-named governorates under sectoral impact and the Governorates/subdistricts that are expected to receive a high number of returnees.
- Prevent micronutrient deficiencies and boost the immunity of children, women and adolescent girls through the provision of multiple micronutrient powders (MNPs) for 1,546,830 children 6-59 months; Vitamin A supplementation for children 6-59 months; micronutrients including iron folate for 862,428 PLWs and 862,428 adolescent girls; and deworming for 1, 388, 288 children 12-59 months.
- Prevent malnutrition in the 1,000 days window (from conception to a child’s second birthday) by providing skilled counselling and support to 1,467,240 pregnant women and primary caregivers of children aged 0-23 months to adopt recommended infant and young child feeding practices, including both breastfeeding and complementary feeding.
- Provide cash for nutrition vouchers to 128,384 PLWs/caretakers of children under 2 years and provide lipid nutrient supplement paste-small quantity blanket supplementary feeding programme (BSFP) for 356,072 children 6-23 months to support dietary diversity and prevent malnutrition.
- Provide treatment for children 0-59 months with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) through outpatient therapeutic programmes for 79,811 SAM children without complications, and through inpatient nutrition sites for 5000 SAM children with complications.
- Manage moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) for 215,305 children 6-59 months without medical complications and 92,837 PLWs with MAM through a targeted supplementary feeding programme.
- Strengthen referrals and linkages between nutrition and other sector services including health/FSA/WASH/protection/education to strengthen prevention of malnutrition, and relapse for cases that have recovered.
Priority activities:
The response will be guided by the nutrition sector’s existing minimum service package, which covers both preventative and curative nutrition services, delivered through community and PHCs. The following activities will be prioritised:
- Scale up implementation of agreed nutrition sector integration package including nutrition specific treatment services across all PHC centres. Nutrition partners to ensure availability of all required nutrition commodities at “point of care” including stabilisation centres and PHCs.
- Establishing and running need based rapid response team to provide preventative and curative nutrition services (only in underserved and newly opened areas, where access to primary health care facilities may be limited).
- Training for newly recruited MoH staff, aiming to restore nutrition services across PHCs and Outpatient Therapeutic Programs (OTPs).
- Implementing preventative activities, including screening for malnutrition; provision of micronutrients supplementation and deworming; provision of maternal, infant, young child and adolescent nutrition (MIYCN) counselling; monitoring and reporting of the code of breast milk substitute marketing across all governorates.
- Providing cash for nutrition vouchers and BSFP for mothers and children in the 1,000 days window to support dietary diversity and prevent malnutrition.
- Scaling-up screening of children and mothers at community level for early detection and management of acute malnutrition and ensuring admission of identified cases within the treatment programs to prevent loss of referrals.
- Implementing curative activities, including early detection and treatment of acute malnutrition for children 0-59 months (with and without medical complications) and PLWs.
- In collaboration with WASH partners, nutrition sector partners to ensure provision of WASH hygiene kits to caregivers of all malnourished children to ensure a safe hygiene environment is available at community and household-levels to prevent any relapse post-treatment.
- Generating evidence (SMART plus surveys) to inform the nutrition response and the 2026 Humanitarian Programme Cycle.
- Strengthen routine nutrition surveillance systems to enable timely identification of trends and inform decision-making.
- Enhance data collection and nutrition reporting by establishing a unified system between partners and the MoH to ensure timely, accurate, and coordinated information for decision-making.
Response strategy:
The nutrition response will sustain preventative and curative services prioritizing severity 3 and 4 subdistricts in all governorates, along with prioritizing gaps arising from recent displacements while ensuring that subdistricts with low coverage in 2024 are prioritized. Efforts will target all who need nutrition services, including marginalized communities, PWD, internally displaced, and vulnerable residents without discrimination, while emphasizing the centrality of protection.
Nutrition partners will work towards Strengthening referrals and linkages between Nutrition and other sector services including Health/Food Security/WASH/Protection/Education to strengthen prevention of malnutrition and relapse for cases that have recovered. Partners will maintain accountability, adhere to PSEA guidelines, and ensure zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse while ensuring actionable measures and reporting mechanisms to guarantee accountable, high-quality, and inclusive programming, with specific attention to AAP, PSEA, gender, and protection.