29 July 2016
Amman - The Concessional Financing Facility (CFF) on Friday announced the first financing to support two projects for refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon at the value of $340 million.

The CFF, an international initiative to address the impacts of the Syrian refugee crisis, aims to raise a total of US$1 billion in grants over the next 5 years in order to provide Jordan and Lebanon with around US$3-4 billion in concessional financing to support refugees and host communities in key sectors such as jobs, education, health and infrastructure, according to a World Bank press release.

The two projects approved at the CFF first steering committee meeting will create jobs for over 200,000 Syrian refugees, and address the urgently needed rehabilitation of municipal infrastructure in Jordan. Meanwhile, the economic opportunities project and the Ain Ghazal wastewater project will be supported by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

"Jordan and Lebanon also presented their respective pipelines of projects that could potentially benefit from concessional financing through the facility. Furthermore, both countries provided an overview of how they will ensure that operations targeting refugees and host communities are well coordinated among development institutions, the United Nations, and the wider donor community." the WB said.

The first steering committee meeting of the CFF convened representatives from Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and the European Union (EU) - the eight donors who announced pledges to the facility in April 2016.

© Jordan News Agency - Petra 2016