The Disasters Emergency Committee will tomorrow launch an appeal for people affected by the Syrian conflict – after expressing uncertainty last month about whether it would do so.

On 15 February, DEC spokesman Brendan Paddy told civilsociety.co.uk that the Committee was “in discussions with its partners” about an appeal, but said that the situation did not yet meet the Committee’s three appeal criteria.

Paddy said that while the scale and urgency of the disaster was satisfactory, the other two criteria – whether member agencies are in a position to provide effective and swift humanitarian assistance, and would the public support be significant enough – were in doubt. This was despite nine of its 14 member charities having their own appeals.

But today the DEC has released a statement saying that it will be launching an official appeal through broadcasters tomorrow.

Rapidly deteriorating situation

This time, civilsociety.co.uk spoke to DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed, who said that since a month ago the situation in Syria has deteriorated considerably, and the conflict has particularly intensified over the last few weeks – meaning the humanitarian need has also increased.

“The numbers fleeing Syria has increased, from approximately 1,000 or 2,000 a day to over 8,000 a day, and now there are over one million refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey – and the UN is predicting that to double or even triple by the end of the year,” he said.

“We’re seeing the situation deteriorate inside Syria and in neighbouring countries, creating desperate need for aid – we’re hearing this both from our member agencies and from their partners on the ground, from the UN, from DFID and many other humanitarian sources.

“So towards the end of February we called a board meeting, and outlined the deteriorating situation. The board unanimously agreed that it was right and proper to launch an appeal.”

Saeed added that for the third criteria, public support, is always difficult to judge, but over the last three weeks the DEC has seen more requests from member agencies about an appeal, convincing the Committee that the support is there.
 
The DEC brings 14 leading UK aid charities together in times of crisis, including Cafod, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Tearfund and World Vision.