Jordan, UN sign agreement to establish fund for Syria crisis

The Jordanian government and the UN inked Saturday an agreement to set up a fund for financing projects of the Jordan Response Plan 2015 for the Syria Crisis, aiming at alleviating burdens on Amman caused by the crisis.
The agreement was signed by Jordan's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Amman Edward Kallon, the ministry said in a statement.
During the signing ceremony, Fakhoury said that the aim of establishing the fund is to provide a neutral umbrella to boost coordination among different governmental and UN bodies, international financing agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
He added that this is part of the joint efforts to coordinate aid so as to face the Syrian crisis at both humanitarian and developmental levels, and to provide required financing to implement programs and projects mentioned in the plan.
This agreement is also part of Jordan's preparations for participating in the Third International Pledging Conference for Syria to be hosted by Kuwait by the end of this month, he said, also aims to urge international donors to increase financing required to the plan.
For his part, Kallon underlined the significance of this fund aiming to provide international support for the plan.
Jordan has announced that the plan needs USD 2.9 billion for financing essentials projects for providing services to Jordanians and Syrians.
The plan seeks to bridge the divide between resilience and humanitarian systems, and reconcile the programming objectives, funding mechanisms and operating systems that often run parallel to each other in addressing short-term people-centred needs, in addition to medium and longer-term systemic and institutional considerations.
As the conflict in Syria enters its fifth year, Jordan is hosting about 1.4 million Syrians, of whom 646,700 are refugees. Eighty-five percent of refugees live outside camps in some of the poorest areas of the country, and a significant proportion are classified as extremely vulnerable.