Empowering Communities: Group Cash Transfers in Deir ez Zor, Syria June 2026

Country: Syrian Arab Republic Source: Community Organized Relief Effort Please refer to the attached file. In 2026, it is estimated that 70% of Syria’s entire population, equivalent to 15.6 million individuals, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA], 2026). These humanitarian needs are not equally distributed by location and recovery efforts have focused on Aleppo or Idleb. However, communities in Deir ez Zour have been particularly underserved with a dearth of international organizations willing to navigate the fluid context and donors slow to deliver on their funding commitments. In this context, community-based organizations (CBOs) have become the main avenue for assistance provision in Deir ez Zor, alongside a few local organizations working to support the population. CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) and Ihsan Relief and Development (Ihsan RD) partnered to deliver Group Cash Transfers (GCT) to 6 CBOs. GCT-funded activities spanned rehabilitating water treatment systems in schools to mitigate risk of water-borne diseases, building barriers between schools and busy streets to reduce safety risks for children, erecting solar-powered street lighting to enhance community safety, including for women and children at night, carrying out hygiene promotion and social cohesion campaigns, providing legal aid, fitting and distributing assistive devices to people living with disabilities, and running recreational and cultural activities. This learning brief focuses on the impact of GCT as a modality in this context and includes findings to encourage uptake of GCT, with recommendations for scaling GCT in Deir ez Zor Governorate and beyond.
2026-06-30 10:58:08