Humanitarian Aid in Northern Syria: Challenges, Adaptations,and Complexities : An Analysis of OCHA's Aid Delivery after the 2023 earthquake in Idlib Governorate

Sammanfattning

The Syrian Revolution, which began on 15 March 2011, has resulted in a prolonged and multifaceted crisis, particularly in northern regions outside the control of the Syrian state until the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024. This precarious situation was further exacerbated on 6 February 2023, when a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck northwest Syria, intensifying an already critical humanitarian emergency. Contributing factors include the ongoing international embargo, the presence of non-state armed groups (NSAGs), fragile infrastructure, and the persistent conflict between the Syrian government and NSAGs. This thesis employs Robert M. Entman’s framing theory to examine how the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) framed the humanitarian challenges in the Idlib governorate after the 2023 earthquake. The analysis focuses on three core framing functions: problem definition, causal interpretation, and moral judgment. It is argued that OCHA’s framing played a significant role in shaping how the humanitarian crisis was understood and prioritised in international discourse. To critically assess the implications of this framing, the thesis also investigates the operational and ethical challenges that OCHA encountered while attempting to deliver aid in northwest Syria. While formally upholding the core humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence, the study finds that the actual delivery of aid was constrained by political, security, and structural factors. These constraints reveal a tension between OCHA's normative commitments and the complex realities of humanitarian governance in conflict-affected regions. This subject remains particularly relevant in light of the continuing humanitarian crises in regions such as Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the persistent challenges confronting humanitarian actors in protracted conflicts, and the broader debate surrounding the politicisation of aid and the ethical tensions inherent in upholding humanitarian principles under such complex conditions.