AMMAN — The Host Communities Support Platform (HCSP) met in the capital on Thursday to discuss endorsing the government’s National Resilience Plan (NRP), according to a Planning Ministry statement.
“The NRP provides a strategic framework for Jordan’s response to the impact of the Syria crisis, with a focus on supporting Jordanian host communities in the most affected areas of the Kingdom,” the ministry said.
The platform, established by the government last September, comprises representatives of ministries, the international community, the UN and key development partners, and it seeks to support the government as it responds to a variety of challenges brought on by the crisis.
“The government has been systematic… in its approach to the impact of the crisis,” the statement quoted Planning Minister Ibrahim Saif as saying ahead of the meeting.
“In September last year [the government] commissioned the Needs Assessment Review (NAR) to obtain the first comprehensive resilience-based reading of the gravity of impact across all the major sectors, and in November it launched an intensive and participatory planning process led by key-line ministries that has now resulted in the production of the National Resilience Plan.”
The NRP seeks to address three major areas of stress identified in the NAR — the accumulating fiscal burden the crisis has brought on at the national level; the strain on local services’ ability to cope, such as education, health and water; and the social and economic consequences facing local communities that are hosting nearly 600,000 refugees.
Following on from the NAR, the government, supported by the HCSP secretariat, the donor community, NGOs and a team of multidisciplinary UN experts prepared a three-year programme of priority investments to address the major challenges presented by the Syrian crisis, the Planning Ministry said.
Saif praised “the robust engagement” of international partners in supporting the preparation of the NRP, underscoring their vital role in its implementation and financing.
The NRP includes a $2.4 billion programme of priority interventions over the 2014-16 period across the eight major sectors of education, energy, health, housing, livelihoods and employment, municipal services, water and sanitation, and social protection.
It also lists the fiscal support required to compensate for the increased cost of subsidies and security support on the budget — $758 million and $965.3 million respectively.
After its endorsement by the HCSP, the NRP will be presented by Saif at the Kuwait high-level Pledging Conference for the Syria crisis next Wednesday, the statement said.
