Syria donor conference opens in London

Syria donor conference kicked off in London on Thursday with the participation of about 70 world leaders.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, currently in London, will lead his country's delegation to the conference - held under the aegis of Britain, Germany, Norway, Kuwait and the United Nations.

Egypt hosts about 100,000 Syrians since the outbreak of the five-year Syrian war.

The conference aims to raise funds for education and jobs for Syrian refugees.

One of the aims of the conference will be to ensure there are school places for all refugee children in the region by 2017, as well helping the host countries to provide places for their own children.

The £6.2bn being sought on Thursday is made up of a UN appeal for £5.3bn and approximately £900m requested by regional host governments.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will pledge an additional £1.2bn in new aid from the UK by 2020.

Part of the reason for the record request is the underfunding of previous appeals.

Only 43% of the $2.9bn pledged to the UN's 2015 appeal has so far been funded.

During the five-year war, millions of Syrians were forced to flee their homes.

The stark reality of a drawn-out conflict requiring more ambitious long-term aid plans has also sunk in.

Fighting between Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and those trying to topple him has only intensified over the past year, and the latest long-shot attempt at U.N.-brokered peace talks got off to an acrimonious start in Geneva over the weekend. Attempts to broker a cease-fire and political transition deal for Syria are further complicated by the involvement of world and regional powers facing off on opposite sides of the conflict.

Donors would work more closely with countries like Lebanon and Jordan to boost fragile economies plagued by high unemployment and help create jobs for both citizens and refugees. Currently, the vast majority of refugees are banned from legal work, making them dependent on scarce aid or forcing them into poorly paid informal jobs. The influx of Syrians has also pushed down wages of Jordanian and Lebanese laborers, driven up rents in poor neighborhoods and overwhelmed local schools and health centers.

Source: MENA