Int’l support for Jordan to address refugee crisis ‘disappointing’ — World Bank chief

AMMAN – World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday described the international support to Jordan to help the Kingdom cope with hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees as “disappointing”, urging donor countries to step up aid to host countries.  

“One of the reasons I am here is that I wanted to see the situation for myself and I wanted to call on the international community to step up; there had been a lot of interest even a year ago, but so far the support for Jordan and Lebanon has frankly been disappointing… we need donor countries, all who care about the stability of this region to step up,” the World Bank chief said at a press conference with Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ibrahim Saif.

Kim was in Amman as part of a regional tour that took him to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. 

He described the humanitarian response of Jordan to receive Syrian refugees as “tremendously generous”, citing his visit to the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq earlier in the day. 

“I was able to visit the Zaatari Refugee Camp this morning and it is truly an enormous scale, but it is only a small portion of refugees who are here in Jordan,” he added, indicating that the World Bank has set up a multimillion donor trust and urged donors to increase their contributions.

Kim said that the Syrian crisis is a global problem, not just for the countries of the region but for the entire world, adding: “We think this is time for other countries to really step up and support this country.”

“Jordan itself is bearing too much of the burden,” he noted.

Answering a question by The Jordan Times on whether the World Bank would adopt a post-war plan to help neighbouring counties recover from spillover caused by the Syrian crisis, Kim said the global community cannot sit back and think that nothing can happen until the crisis is over. 

“We have really to focus on building the foundation for growth in the medium and long term.

During his visit to Lebanon on Tuesday, Kim said world powers and international donors must prepare a post-war reconstruction plan for Syria and its neighbours to help the region recover from the conflict, which erupted in March 2011, with no signs of abating in the near future.

“It is important to get down and talk about things of importance like water, energy, transportation… We are engaged in these projects now and we will continue [with this engagement].”

At the press conference Saif revealed that the government and the World Bank chief discussed the possibility to extend $700-$800 million for Jordan to finance development projects, and $200 million to support the budget in the near future. 

The minister said the World Bank provided Jordan last year with an easy loan of $150 million, and in March approved a $250 million loan to help the Kingdom deal with the influx of Syrian refugees.