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Significant response plan

Jan 15,2017 - Last updated at Jan 15,2017

In order to be able to deal more efficiently with the Syrian refugees and the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on the Kingdom, the government and the international community on Thursday endorsed the $7.6-billion three-year Jordan Response Platform (JRP) for the Syria Crisis.

The JRP for the Syria Crisis 2017–2019, a call for further collective action to respond to the crisis that builds on the “paradigm-shift and resilience-focused approaches adopted to proactively respond to the protracted humanitarian and development challenges”, will help Jordan uphold its commitment to supporting the refugees while turning this challenge into an economic opportunity, said the prime minister. 

Jordan continues to discharge its moral obligation towards the Syrians who fled the horrors in their country, but it is shouldering “more than its fair share”, the PM told the ministers, ambassadors, diplomats, and high-level officials and civil society representatives who met on Thursday to adopt the new JRP, stressing the importance of the support the international community has been lending Jordan, which helped it remain resilient “in a very difficult regional setting”.

The magnitude of the crisis requires a collective response commensurate with the scale of the challenges it poses, and JRP is clearly just such response, aiming, among others, to replace current short-term coping solutions with long-term initiatives aimed at strengthening local and national resilience capacities.

The objective of the JRP is to upgrade central, regional and local authorities’ capacities, mitigate pressure on host communities and foster the resilience of the service-delivery system, municipal services and infrastructure in areas critically affected by demographic stress, while meeting the needs of Syrian refugees in and outside camps, as well as of the Jordanians affected by the Syria crisis.

The effort to meet its moral obligation to the more than one and a half million refugees has indeed outstretched Jordan’s ability to cope — in no small measure on behalf of the international community as well — beyond a sustainable point. 

JRP recognises that Jordan needs help, and urgently, to remain resilient in a region engulfed in conflict and upheaval, and aims at turning the challenges associated with the influx of refugees into an economic opportunity.

The bulk of the help envisaged for the refugees will go towards providing them with shelter, social protection, work opportunities, education for their children and healthcare. 

This requires serious economic planning and big investments, especially knowing that the refugee problem is not going to go away soon.

The 2017-2019 plan prepared by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation outlines a coherent, sequenced and sustainable response to the multifaceted impact of a complex crisis.

But as it endures, the cost of hosting refugees continues to grow, outpacing the support provided by the international community.

The aid this latter has given so far cannot be denied; it has been invaluable. But more is needed, and expected, to deal with a problem that stopped being Syrian alone or of the neighbouring countries.

Jordan’s economic growth, fiscal health and ability to provide basic services have all been affected and that threatens to undermine the country’s recent development progress. 

The scale and length of the crisis defies conventional refugee responses and development approaches and challenges standard aid and coordination mechanisms. 

The JRP for the Syria Crisis is thus an important mechanism to address the problem, one that clearly has the support of international donors.

 

And while it is to be commended, it should also remind the world that the Syrian crisis will only be solved when the guns fall silent and the country enjoys peace.

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