Making the worst of a bad situation

In mid-December, the United Nations made another international appeal for Syria, the sixth since the country’s three-year civil war began. The numbers were staggering – a total of $6.5 billion was requested for the whole of 2014 to aid Syrians both inside the country and in refugee communities in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt, a figure roughly equal to the public spending of Iceland last year. This would provide support to 16 million people, including over 800,000 in Lebanon — the smallest of Syria’s neighbors but the one with the highest proportion of refugees (around 35 percent). One noteworthy thing about the appeal was the declining role for the Lebanese government. In total the appeal requested $1.89 billion to support both the government and the work of international bodies, primarily UNHCR. But the breakdown was not even — $1.7 billion for the UN and just $165 million for the