By Sonia Al Ali
IDLIB, Syria, Oct 23 2024 – Children in northern Syria are suffering from hunger, illness, and malnutrition as a result of poverty, poor living conditions for most families, and the collapse of purchasing power amid the soaring prices of all essential food commodities. Displacement and a lack of job opportunities make this worse.

Nour al-Hammoud, a 5-year-old girl whose family was displaced from Maarat al-Numan, south of Idlib, to a makeshift camp in the northern countryside of Idlib, near the Syrian-Turkish border, suffers from acute malnutrition. She is extremely thin. 

“My daughter’s immunity is very weak; she suffers from stunted growth and constant illness. We cannot provide her with the nutrients she needs due to our poverty. My husband is unemployed because of a war injury, and humanitarian aid in this camp is almost nonexistent,” her mother, who did not want to be named, says.

The mother indicates that she took her daughter to a pediatrician at a health center more than 5 km from the camp, and the doctor confirmed that the girl was suffering from malnutrition and prescribed medication and supplements, but these haven’t yet made a difference. The mother confirmed that her daughter’s condition is deteriorating day by day, and she is helpless to do anything for her.

Samah al-Ibrahim, 33, from the city of Idlib, northern Syria, is also unable to afford formula milk for her 9-month-old baby, which has affected his growth and health. She says, “My husband works in construction all day for USD 3. We can barely afford our basic necessities, so we can’t buy milk on many days, especially since I can’t breastfeed due to malnutrition myself.”

Al-Ibrahim confirms that she relies on cooking starch with sugar or boiling rice to feed her son, as milk is not available daily.

As for Sanaa al-Barakat, 35, she has been living in a state of severe anxiety after discovering that her 2-year-old daughter, Rim, is suffering from acute malnutrition and stunted growth and it is critical she gets care immediately.

“The doctor diagnosed her with severe malnutrition, which caused brain atrophy and delayed the acquisition of motor skills. She also suffers from difficulty speaking as well as lethargy and refuses to play like other children. Additionally, she is introverted,” al-Barakat.

She said her daughter Rim is not the only one suffering from malnutrition, but all of her four children are as well, because she finds it very difficult to provide her children with the necessary food supplies. She often only manages to feed them one meal a day.

Dr. Nour Al-Abbas (39), a pediatrician from Sarmada, north of Idlib, speaks about malnutrition, saying, “It is a serious health condition where children suffer from a deficiency in the essential nutrients their bodies need, causing them symptoms and signs that vary in severity and danger.”

She confirms that a quarter of children in Idlib suffer from malnutrition due to not getting enough nutritious food due to a lack of and of dietary diversity, which makes them susceptible to disease and weakens their immune systems.”

The doctor explains that the number of children she receives at the health center where she works is increasing. Al-Abbas says the mothers are also often suffering from malnutrition. The conditions the families live in are a result of poverty as a result of displacement due to war, the large number of children in one family, and the inability of mothers to breastfeed.

The spread of infectious diseases among children and reliance on contaminated and unclean drinking water exacerbate the situation. Often the mothers continue attempting to cope without consulting a doctor and when they do finally seek health, the children’s condition is poor.

Al-Abbas points out that the groups most at risk of malnutrition are children after the breastfeeding period, i.e., from the age of 6 months to 6 years. However, some mothers are reluctant to breastfeed their children for several reasons, the most important of which is the mother’s suffering from malnutrition as well.

“Malnutrition has different symptoms, the most important of which are severe weakness and feeling constantly tired, in addition to the child not gaining weight and height with pale skin and yellowing, or the appearance of edema or continuous inflammatory conditions such as dermatitis or peeling around the lips or abdominal distension (bloating),” Al-Abbas says.

The doctor called for additional support from charities and NGOs in an effort to provide food and medicine through field visits to camps.

According to UNICEF estimates, 9 out of 10 children in Syria do not consume minimally acceptable diets, leading to stunting and wasting. As many as 506,530 children under the age of five in Idlib, Syria, and northern rural Aleppo urgently need treatment for acute malnutrition, and nearly 108,000 children suffer from severe wasting. Disease prevalence, a lack of food, and inadequate sanitation services all make the situation worse.

In addition, over 609,900 children under the age of five in Syria suffer from stunting, according to UNICEF estimates. Stunting results from chronic malnutrition and causes irreversible physical and cognitive damage in children. This impacts their ability to learn and their productivity in adulthood.

According to the “Syria Response Coordinators” team, which specializes in statistics in northwestern Syria, the percentage of families below the poverty line is 91.18 percent, while the percentage of families below the hunger line has reached 41.05 percent. All families residing in the region’s widespread camps have been classified as entirely below the poverty line.

Poverty, displacement, and inflation have increased the prevalence of malnutrition among Syrian children, stunting their growth due to the lack of sufficient essential nutrients for their bodies to grow, negatively impacting them and depriving them of their most basic rights.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 2024 – The second of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza has yielded relative success, as so far more than 420,000 children have been vaccinated since the second round of immunizations began one week prior. This exception stands out as the uptick in airstrikes and sustained blockages of aid give humanitarian organizations cause for concern for the deterioration of Gaza, especially in the north.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahiya on October 19 led to at least 87 deaths and caused extensive damage to nearby infrastructure. Dr Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director of nursing, informed reporters that the strikes leveled several buildings and left “more than four or five residential blocks razed to the ground”. Despite this, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have reiterated their claims that their airstrikes are “precision attacks” on Hamas operations, intending to cause no harm to innocent civilians.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) confirmed on Monday that Israeli authorities continue to deny access to humanitarian missions in the north, with critical deliveries such as food and medicine being impeded.

In a statement first issued on X (formerly Twitter) on October 21, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini remarked that hospitals in Gaza have been hit by airstrikes and are left without power, leaving the injured to their own devices. Efforts to rescue civilians trapped under the rubble of explosions have been denied. Additionally, the remaining displacement shelters have reached maximum capacity, forcing many displaced individuals to sleep in public latrines.

On October 22, Lazzarini followed up with a new statement on X which is marked as a SOS from UNRWA staff in northern Gaza. The staff present are continuing operations and keeping shelters open throughout the bombardments, even up until now when they cannot find food, water or medical assistance.

“The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied,” said Lazzarini. “In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die. They feel deserted, hopeless and alone. They live from one hour to the next, fearing death at every second.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that between October 6 and 20, over 28 requests for humanitarian missions were denied by Israeli authorities. A further request for aid delivery on October 22 has also been denied.

Conditions in displacement shelters grow worse on a daily basis. OCHA stresses that essential resources such as food, clean water, fuel, and healthcare are dwindling, with telecommunications being severely compromised.

“The fuel needed to keep water facilities running has been depleted, and people are either risking their lives to find drinking water or consuming water from unsafe sources,” said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has stressed the urgency of food deliveries as the upcoming winter season is expected to greatly exacerbate critical hunger levels throughout the enclave. In October, WFP announced that none of their food parcels were delivered. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the risk of famine in Gaza is estimated to rise dramatically between November 2024 and April 2025 if hostilities and aid blockages continue.

“Commercial supplies are down, there is large-scale displacement, infrastructure is decimated, agriculture has collapsed and people have no money. All this is reflected in the IPC’s projection that the situation will get worse from November onwards,” said Arif Husain, WFP’s Chief Economist.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on October 22 to discuss ceasefire negotiations with Israeli officials. This comes one week after the U.S. Department of State wrote a letter to Israel, demanding for humanitarian aid missions to be allowed into Gaza unimpeded. If the humanitarian situation does not improve in 30 days, Israel risks losing support from the U.S. military.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published a new report on October 22, which estimates that the destruction seen during the course of the Israel-Hamas War will set development in the Gaza Strip back by roughly 69 years. The report adds that poverty levels in Gaza are estimated to affect 74.3 percent of the entire population, or over 4.1 million people.

“Projections in this new assessment confirm that amidst the immediate suffering and horrific loss of life, a serious development crisis is also unfolding – one that jeopardizes the future of Palestinians for generations to come,” said Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UNDP.

The report by the UNDP also hypothesized several recovery scenarios for Gaza. To stand a chance in putting the Palestinian economy back on track to realigning with Palestinian development plans by 2034, it is imperative that a ceasefire is reached, economic restrictions are lifted, and Gaza receives an uninterrupted flow of humanitarian assistance.

Under one of the proposed recovery scenarios, in addition to an annual 280 million dollars being put into humanitarian aid, 290 million dollars must also be allocated for recovery efforts. This plan is estimated to significantly reduce poverty and increase the number of households gaining access to essential services.

“The assessment indicates that, even if humanitarian aid is provided each year, the economy may not regain its pre-crisis level for a decade or more,” said Steiner. “As conditions on the ground allow, the Palestinian people need a robust early recovery strategy embedded in the humanitarian assistance phase, laying foundations for a sustainable recovery.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Michael Galant
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 23 2024 – On Friday the 11th, the IMF announced policy changes that will save developing countries $1.2 billion per year. Despite the self-congratulations and fanfare, these reforms are only a tiny fraction of what campaigners had been asking for — and an even smaller share of what the Global South needs.

This month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had an opportunity to end one of its most reviled policies and lift billions of dollars of debt off the backs of crisis-stricken developing countries. It chose not to.

The IMF’s ostensible mission is to promote financial stability by providing loans to countries facing economic challenges or crises. These loans must be repaid, with interest, and typically come with harmful conditions of austerity, privatization, and deregulation.

Since 1997, the IMF has also levied fees called surcharges, on top of the regular costs of a loan, on countries whose debt to the Fund exceeds a certain threshold. By the IMF’s logic, these highly indebted countries — like Pakistan, which is still recovering from unprecedented natural disasters, and Ukraine, which is in the midst of a war — surcharges provide an incentive to deter prolonged reliance on the Fund.

In reality, surcharges exacerbate already onerous debt burdens, siphoning scarce resources from countries in need of relief rather than punishment. As a result of the pandemic, the global economic shocks sparked by the war in Ukraine, climate change, and rising interest rates — circumstances well beyond any individual country’s control — the number of countries forced to pay surcharges to the IMF has nearly tripled in the past five years. Clearly, surcharges do not work as claimed.

As the burden of surcharges has grown, so has their opposition. In recent years, researchers have uncovered the profound harms caused by the policy, members of Congress have passed legislation demanding their reassessment, and civil society groups have organized discussions and letters pushing for their elimination.

Ultimately, a clear global majority — including every developing country, leading economists, UN human rights experts, and hundreds of organizations like Oxfam and the International Trade Union Confederation — stood on the side of discontinuing the policy.

Given this near-consensus, the policy’s clear harms, the fact that the IMF has no need for surcharge income, and the historical precedence for their elimination, many assumed that ending surcharges was a low-hanging fruit. Following years of pressure, the IMF initiated a formal review of surcharges this summer.

The outcome of that review, announced last week, provided a welcome measure of relief, but ultimately fell short. Rather than ending the counterproductive policy, the Fund raised the threshold at which surcharges must be paid, and slightly reduced their charge. The Fund also decreased its current non-surcharge lending rate from 4.51 percent to 4.11.

Because of the increased threshold, fewer countries will pay surcharges, though the number could still grow significantly in the coming years, as climate disasters and other external shocks force more countries to take on higher levels of IMF debt.

By the Fund’s measurements, these changes will reduce the costs paid by all borrowers, combined, by $1.2 billion annually. While this is better than what would have occurred without concerted external efforts, the Fund has ultimately doubled down on its procyclical logic while conceding only enough to alleviate pressure.

Inside reports indicate that the United States, which has the largest vote under the Fund’s undemocratic governance structure, was the primary blocker of more substantive reform, proposing instead to use the income from surcharges to cover for wealthy countries’ own funding shortfalls.

For many highly indebted countries, including Ecuador, Argentina, Ukraine, Egypt, and Pakistan, the failure to discontinue surcharges means a multi-billion dollar bill will soon come due, making it harder to reduce debts to sustainable levels or to finance development, climate action, and other critical needs.

This, in turn, adds fuel to the fire of an already vicious cycle of debt, underdevelopment, and climate change; nearly 80 developing countries are already in or at risk of debt distress, three quarters of which are highly climate vulnerable.

This is hardly the first time the IMF has imperiled the Global South. The IMF is perhaps best known for its role during the debt crises of the 1980s and 1990s, in which emergency loans were used to force developing countries to adopt neoliberalizing reforms that resulted in lost decades of economic growth.

In response to these evident harms, mounting global protests, and decreasing reliance on Fund lending, the IMF in the 2000s began to adopt better rhetoric, established new fora for civil society participation, and eventually even owned up to many of its failures. But while these cosmetic changes defused opposition, the Fund did not fundamentally alter its approach.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, and accelerating during the pandemic, developing countries have once again been forced to accumulate a powder keg of debt. The IMF’s response has not only been insufficient, but, in the case of surcharges and the continued insistence on austerity, actively harmful. Meanwhile, attempts to democratize the IMF’s governance structure and give greater voice to countries of the Global South have repeatedly faltered.

But while the IMF long ago revealed its true face, developing countries have had nowhere else to turn. In today’s increasingly multipolar world, that may soon change. China’s emergence as the world’s largest bilateral creditor, the establishment of the BRICS+’s New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Agreement, efforts to build alternatives to the US dollar and its attendant monetary constraints — countries across the Global South are seeking to reduce dependence on the IMF.

While these alternatives remain nascent, the fact that the Fund has proven unresponsive to even the simplest of reforms should only hasten this process.

Civil society groups, meanwhile, who hoped that directly engaging with the IMF would lead to substantive change, may yet become disillusioned. If all this time, resources, and energy could not even end surcharges, perhaps the prospects of “change from within” should be abandoned — and the era of mass protest from outside the security perimeter, revitalized.

Discontinuing surcharges alone would not have solved the many crises facing the Global South. But the failure to do so has made clear that the solutions do not lie within the IMF. When even the low-hanging fruit is out of reach, perhaps all that is left is to strike at the root.

Michael Galant is a Senior Research and Outreach Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, DC. He is also a member of the Secretariat of Progressive International. Views are his own. He can be found on X at @michael_galant.

IPS UN Bureau

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