Agreement signed to launch Jordan Resilience Fund
Amman, March 28 (Petra) — The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, on Saturday, signed an agreement between the Jordanian government and the United Nations to establish the Jordan Resilience Fund (JRF).
The JRF is a development fund that seeks to boost joint efforts to further coordinate donations and their effectiveness in minimizing the effects of the Syrian crisis on Jordan, by funding projects of the 2015 Jordan Response Plan (JRP). Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury and the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Jordan Edward Kallon signed the agreement, with the attendance of representatives of several UN agencies in Jordan, including the UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UN Women, WFP, FAO, UNOPS, IOM and ILO.
Fakhoury noted that the establishment of the JRF seeks to provide an impartial platform to strengthen coordination, assessment, planning and communication among various entities of the Jordanian government, UN agencies, international aid agencies and non-governmental organizations.
It is also a step to organize the humanitarian and development assistance that seeks to face the impact of the Syrian crises, as well as providing the needed funding to implement programs and projects of the JRP for the year 2015 in addition to allowing non-traditional donation means for donors that are not represented in Jordan. He added that signing the JRF agreement comes in the framework of the government’s preparations for the upcoming Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, scheduled on March 31, in which Jordan will call on the international community and donors to increase their funding support for the JRP.
The plan aims to enhance Jordan’s capabilities in dealing with the humanitarian and development needs as well as the costs that the government of Jordan bears as a result of the Syrian crisis. Increasing the donor’s funding will help Jordan continue the support it provides to Syrian refugees as to sustain the development achievements it has worked on accomplishing for decades.
The initiative is part of the Ministry’s efforts in setting and implementing the JRF in coordination with all concerned ministries, UN agencies, donors and international organisations as the sole reference and a unified framework that is based on the national priorities, yet it considers the needs of refugees and their local host communities.
The humanitarian and development needs of the refugees were incorporated within the3RP Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan to guarantee that the regionally collected funding to deal with the Syrian crises is in harmony with Jordan’s national priorities.
The minister highlighted the creation of a new electronic information system that donors, UN agencies and other international and regional organizations can use to provide their projects and work plans on the JRF.
Donors and international agencies received training on using the online portal. He added that by launching the new fund as an optional and flexible funding portal (including direct aid for state budget, or funding new projects or through UN and other development agencies), Jordan has provided a comprehensive framework that allows the country to collect additional donations by means that meet internationally recognized best practices.
The JRF encourages transparency and accountability, in addition to its ability to accelerate the decision making process and facilitate procedures in light of the resilience fund and the national priorities. He added that the efforts to increase and coordinate donations come were triggered by the exhaustion of Jordan’s resources, as the Kingdom seeks to preserve its development gains based on the Berlin and Paris declarations. He reiterated that the JRF will support the joint efforts towards increasing the coordination and the effectiveness of aid to Jordan.
Form his side, Kallon highlighted the importance of launching the JRF in providing international support for the JRP, which is a new method in dealing with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis that combines humanitarian and development programs under a framework that empowers Syrian refugees and the cost communities.
He called for donors to support Jordan in facing the challenges of the Syrian refugees issue and to consider the fund as an optional funding method. The UN representative said the fund is major qualitative addition to the JRP as a specialized development fund, as it provides a platform for expanding partnerships, limiting the costs of procedures and increasing accountability via a joint administration of the Jordanian government, the UN and donors.
“The effect of the Syria crisis in Jordan is unprecedented. The country remains a bastion of regional stability, but national response capacity and traditional humanitarian response infrastructure are at full stretch. We have all recognized that this is unsustainable, and that a paradigm shift is required in our collective response to this protracted crisis,” he said.
He noted that the JRP is a “strategic transformation” in the national leadership’s doctrine in dealing with the Syrian crisis, as the plan coordinates humanitarian and development under a unified national framework that seeks to boost Jordan’s resilience in dealing with the needs of refugees and the Jordanian host communities.
The plan is a compact between Jordan and the international community, he said, adding its success will require mobilization of very significant additional resources to meet the US $2.9 billion funding needed.
He added that many donors have already demonstrated extraordinary generosity over the past years, but donors must now collectively seek to do more through the single funding framework to ease off the effects of the Syrian crisis. Moreover, he called on donors to consider the fund as one possible mechanism for contributions and pledges including the conference in Kuwait.
The JRP 2015, which will be implemented by the Planning Ministry, includes capital cost for fundamental projects that sustain the services provided for Jordanians and to continue to provide Syrian refugees with the basic services. It will be updated before the end of this year to implement funded projects and programs over the years 2016-2018.
PETRA