Belgium pledges 75 million EUR for Syria at international donor conference

At the international Supporting Syria & the Region  donor conference held in London today, Prime Minister Charles Michel pledged, on behalf of our country, 75 million EUR in humanitarian aid to the Syrian region, to be paid this year and the next. The money will be spent on humanitarian aid in Syria and in its neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The region is currently facing the largest humanitarian needs in the world. 

Prime Minister Charles Michel: “75 million to allow the refugees to stay in their own region. The international support is intended to improve the refugees’ living conditions. Health, education, better sanitary conditions and also better access to the labour market must be the priority. It is important that we encourage the refugees to stay in the region near their country of origin and to provide dignified living conditions. The support and commitment of the international community can make the difference.”

Record humanitarian support

Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Development Coordination Alexander De Croo: “Our country will also further raise its total humanitarian budget for this year. Last year, Belgium already earmarked a record 150 million EUR for humanitarian interventions. More than a third of the humanitarian resources went to the crises in Syria and Iraq. This year we’re raising the humanitarian budget further, to 170 million EUR. No Belgian government has ever made such a large commitment when it comes to humanitarian efforts.”

The international humanitarian organisation receiving the most support from our country last year was the International Committee of the Red Cross (21.1 million EUR), followed by the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR (16.8 million) and UNRWA (10.2 million). Belgian humanitarian NGOs received funds in the amount of 22.3 million EUR.

Positive evaluation

Belgium recently received praise from Oxfam International, among others, for its humanitarian contributions to the Syria crisis. The international aid organisation drew up a Fair Share Analysis, which compares countries’ actual humanitarian contributions to their fair share, the contribution a country may be expected to make because of the size of their gross national income. The analysis shows Belgium, together with the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands as being one of the countries making a greater humanitarian effort than can be expected.

In the past, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee had given Belgium good marks as a humanitarian donor, during the five-yearly Peer Review. As a humanitarian donor, our country uses a specific mix of instruments:  (1) multi-annual programmes in response to complex crises to bridge the gap between humanitarian aid and development, (2) multi-annual contributions paid into the general resources of international humanitarian organisations, which means Belgium is a predictable and reliable donor, (3) multi-annual flexible funds allowing Belgium to make funds available to humanitarian organisations quickly and (4) projects in response to sudden and forgotten crises.