Syria Recovery Trust Fund: providing help in Syria

Looking after the local population despite ongoing violence

The civil war has been raging in Syria for five years. It has already claimed 250,000 lives, while more and more people are being driven from their homeland. People are fleeing from violence, but the severe damage to infrastructure also makes it more difficult to survive in the country. The SRTF was thus launched in 2013 in order to provide the local population with essentials such as food, water and electricity despite the conflict.

Germany was a co-initiator

Along with the United States and the United Arab Emirates, Germany was an initiator of this reconstruction fund in 2013. It has provided 18.68 million euros and is thus the second-largest donor. It will provide a further 15 million euros in 2016. The German bank, KfW (Reconstruction Loan Corporation), has taken over the administration of the SRTF. In addition to the three initiators, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Kuwait, the Netherlands and Norway also provide financial support to the SRTF.

Electricity, water, bread and hospitals

Over 120 million euros have been paid into the Fund so far. This funding is exclusively used for projects in Syria. The focus is therefore on helping those who have remained in their homeland despite the fighting and who are trying to preserve a minimum level of supplies and social infrastructure. Projects worth €55 million have been approved so far, directly benefiting over two million people. For example, destroyed pylons in northern Syria were rebuilt in order to provide around 300,000 people with electricity. In Aleppo, the SRTF funded a fleet of trucks, which has been delivering drinking water to the local population since the water supply system was destroyed. The construction of flour mills means that 500,000 people can be supplied with bread, while the reconstruction of hospitals and the financing of medical equipment helps to improve healthcare in the country.

The Vienna process and aid for the local population

This aid in Syrian national territory has formed an important part of the support provided by Germany since the outbreak of the civil war in 2012. The endeavours are aimed both at achieving a political solution to the conflict through the Vienna process and at providing aid to the Syrian population in the country and its neighbouring states so that as many people as possible are spared from having to flee their home region. In order to extend this support, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, Kuwait and the United Nations co-hosted the Supporting Syria and the Region conference in London on 4 February 2016.

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