News | 25 05 2020
loujein haj youssef
The third Conference on “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region” organized by the European Union was launched today in the Belgian capital Brussels.
The two-day third Brussels conference aimed to raise $ 5 billion to respond to the crisis of Syrian displaced and refugees in neighbouring countries of asylum, especially in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Through this Conference, the European Union sought to continue to provide humanitarian and political support in Syria in order to finally reach an agreed-upon political solution and to help create conditions for a brighter future for all Syrians.
The second conference in 2018 failed to raise $ 6 billion with the United States’ refusal to provide financial support after the reduction of the budget allocated for foreign aid and allocations by President Trump, and after both France and Britain’s transfer of financial support allocated to the Syrians to refugees who are outside Syria.
Representatives of 85 countries and international and regional organizations, including Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the Arab countries concerned with the Syrian file, are expected to attend the third donor conference on Syria having the main theme as the region's economic recovery and humanitarian assistance.
Humanitarian actors appeal to donors to continue their support for life-saving, protective and livelihoods services for more than 11 million people.
In conjunction with the launch of the third donor conference, the United Nations launched a review of humanitarian needs in Syria for 2019, with 11.7 million people still in need of some form of assistance, including food, health care, and shelter.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that more than 2 million Syrian girls and boys are out of school, and that people have exhausted their resources, while more than 80 percent of the population live below the poverty line.
OCHA said that displacement remained a defining characteristic of the Syrian crisis, with an estimated 6.2 million internally displaced persons and more than 5.6 million refugees.