‘World still not doing enough to help address refugee crisis’

AMMAN — Jordan on Sunday said countries must live up to their commitments to the Kingdom as funding for the 2017 Jordan Response Plan, aimed at helping the Kingdom overcome challenges ensuing from the Syrian crisis, has only reached around 58.8 per cent of the required amount.

"Jordan is doing this on behalf of the international community," a source, who preferred anonymity, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

He called for an adequate size aid to address the situation and make up for the unfulfilled part of assistance.

Funding requirements for the 2017 plan stand at $2.65 billion, but by December 19, the total funding reached only $1.559 billion or 58.8 per cent of the total amount, according to figures released by the Jordan Response Platform for the Syrian, Crisis.

Of the total funds for the plan until December 19th, a total of $653.7 million was allocated to supporting refugees, $267.4 million for budget support and $638.8 million was earmarked as resilience support.

According to the platform’s website, $261.9 million of the total funding was dedicated for the education sector, $66.9 million for the energy sector, and $271.8 million for social protection.

A total of $98 million was dedicated for local governance and municipal services, $163.9 million for food security and $155.7 million for water and sanitations projects, among other targeted sectors.

The US topped the list of countries committing funds to the plan with $305.3 million as of December 19th. Germany came second with $233.7 million and the EU was third with $122.8 million.

The UK came fourth with $64.1 million, followed by Saudi Arabia with $27.262.8 million, Japan ($56.5 million), Canada ($40.9 million), France ($25.5 million), Netherlands ($17.2 million), Norway ($12.8 million) and Switzerland ($10.6 million).

The rest of the amount was shared between Denmark, Italy, Finland, Spain, Australia, Qatar, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Taiwan, Belgium, Poland, South Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and other countries.