US committed to alleviating burden on host communities — official

AMMAN — The United States remains deeply committed to providing the kind of life-saving assistance needed by the Syrian people and also to alleviating the burden on host communities in Jordan, a US official said on Thursday.

“We are extremely grateful and appreciative of the people of Jordan,” as both the people and the government have been “so courageous in providing help for Syrians”, said Nancy Lindborg — USAID assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance.

Lindborg noted that the US is the second largest donor regionally in this crisis and the largest donor to the World Food Programme (WFP).

During her visit to Jordan, the US official said she visited Syrian refugees who are receiving assistance through the WFP in the form of a credit card, a new programme which was recently adopted.

She said the use of the credit card by Syrian refugees is a very important change in their lives because “they are able with much greater dignity to use this card to go shop for their families, when they have the need and to get what they need.”

“It’s been an extraordinary evolution in how we were able to provide assistance, and it also has a good benefit for Jordanian supermarkets and the economy in general,” Lindborg told reporters at a press conference at the US embassy in Amman.

She added that the supermarket she visited in Amman has had a 20 per cent increase in sales.

The official noted that the WFP has created about 350 jobs “mainly for Jordanians” and since the crisis, $140 million in cash has been injected into the Kingdom’s economy through assistance provided to the WFP.

“We understand it does not offset the entire burden but it helps, and benefits both the Jordanians and the Syrians,” Lindborg said. 

“We are also looking into other ways in which we can — in particular — provide assistance to the host communities through assistance in water, schools, [and] health so that the ongoing programme for Jordan has a little extra emphasis on host communities.”

Referring to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 that stipulated boosting humanitarian aid access in Syria, Lindborg explained that a report will be submitted on March 27 to the council and it will be an important opportunity to document “very precisely what gains have been accomplished and if none, ‘why not?’”

There is no excuse to disallow the assistance from reaching people who have been suffering, she added.

US Ambassador to Jordan Stuart E. Jones said his country is working on expanding the premises of 20 schools in the northern region as part of US support to Jordan’s education programme.

“Last year we gave $200 million in additional cash assistance to the Jordanian government… and we are also working on additional cash assistance” this year, Jones said at the press conference.