Berlin: The United Nations said Thursday that it was seeking $8.4 billion, more than the annual economic output of dozens of countries, to help nearly 18 million victims of Syria's conflict during 2015.
For the first time, the request, made at a donors' meeting in Berlin, includes development aid for communities in neighbouring countries that have been overwhelmed by the exodus of refugees.
The development aid - for education, public health, public works and jobs - was an acknowledgment that the crisis may last many years, and that it has seriously disrupted the lives of non-Syrians outside the war zone.
"Syria's war is still escalating, and the humanitarian situation is becoming protracted," Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN refugee agency, said in an announcement about the request.
"Refugees and internally displaced people have exhausted their savings and resources, and host countries are at breaking point," he said. "We need a new aid architecture that links support to the refugees with what is being done to stabilise the communities who host them."
The total amount requested is $1.2 billion more than the preliminary figure announced less than two weeks ago at the UN offices in Geneva.
Aid officials said the earlier figure did not include updated information for Lebanon and Jordan, which have been deeply strained by influxes of Syrian refugees.
About 12.2 million - more than half the country's population - have been displaced within Syria because of the conflict.
Some 3.2 million more have fled the country, becoming refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq or Egypt, according to UN data.
The United Nations' 2015 financing plan includes a projection that the refugee total will rise to 4.3 million next year.
The plan sets aside money to directly assist "over a million vulnerable people in host communities," the announcement said, adding that an additional 20.6 million people in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt will benefit indirectly through upgrades in local infrastructure and services.
The Syrian conflict began with demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar Assad in March 2011, followed by a harsh crackdown; it has since become a protracted civil war that has threatened to destabilise the Middle East.
Syria is reckoned the largest single crisis in the U.N. annual humanitarian funding request.
"Conflict has devastated millions of Syrians' lives, trapping them in conflict areas and denying them access to basic provisions and health care," Valerie Amos, U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in the announcement.
"This plan, if fully funded, can help us provide food and medicine for children, shelter families from the cold, and support those who are desperate and traumatized," she said.
At $8.4 billion, the total amount sought is larger than the gross national products of countries like Rwanda, Niger, Guinea or Mauritania, data compiled by the World Bank show.
Guterres sought to put the request in perspective.
"For those that think that this is a lot of money, I don't remember any bailout of any medium-sized bank that has cost less than this," Guterres told reporters in Berlin, according to Agence France-Presse.
