Germany Contributes an Additional Euro 15 Million to the Resources of the Syria Recovery Trust Fund

Gaziantep – Tuesday, 9 February 2016 – The Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF) announced today that Germany has contributed an additional Euro 15 million to the resources of the fund. The contribution was confirmed in a recent letter from the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation to the Chair of the SRTF Steering Board.

Commenting on the decision, Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, HE Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said in a statement: “We support local councils in cities and villages controlled by the Syrian opposition where state structures have broken down.” He added that such support was intended “to keep up essential services, often with the help of international humanitarian organizations, to repair hospitals and to supply water.” “For this reason,” he affirmed, “we found that the SRTF is an important mechanism - not to be overrated for the fundamental questions of war and peace - to start now cautious reconstruction where possible”. The Minister underlined that Germany had previously contributed money for the SRTF and ask others to do the same. “Today,” he concluded, “I can say: we are contributing another 15 million EUR”.

The SRTF Director-General, Hani Khabbaz, welcomed “this largest additional contribution of an SRTF donor,” expressing his “gratitude for Germany’s generous support to the fund’s efforts to alleviate the suffering of Syrians inside Syria.” He said: “Germany’s additional contribution is yet another evidence of the confidence that the donor community places in the cost-effectiveness and achievements of the SRTF over the past couple of years”. Eng. Khabbaz added: “the additional contributions of the SRTF donors are essential to help it meet the growing challenges posed by an increasingly complex and devastating conflict.” He also underlined the importance of “the SRTF drive to boost the resilience of Syrian civilians remaining in moderate opposition held areas.”

Germany is the seventh nation, following the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Finland and Denmark to confirm its increased contribution to the fund. The US contributed US$ 15 million (about Euro 13.6 million), while the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Finland and Denmark provided Euro 2 million, Euro 1.7 million, Euro 6.27, Euro 3 million and DKK 25.8 million (about Euro 3.46 million) respectively. These additional contributions bring the total amount of SRTF resources to 135.27 million.

Germany had already contributed about Euro 18.68 million to the initial resources of the SRTF, which reached a total of Euro 90.2 as of 31 December 2014.  It had also provided an additional Euro 0.7 million to finance the fund’s structural set up at the beginning of its existence. Besides the seven donors who have already announced their additional contributions over the past few months (i.e. the US, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Finland, Denmark and Germany), the other SRTF donor countries that have not yet announced their increase contributions are the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Kuwait, France and Italy.

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http://www.srtfund.org

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