Middle Eastern countries and several international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, have agreed to establish an informal commission to support the economic recovery of conflict-torn Middle Eastern countries, The National<\/i> reports. This commission will focus in particular on Syria.<\/p>\n
The Arab Coordination Group, comprising the Abu Dhabi Development Fund, the Arab Economic Development Bank in Africa, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Gulf Arab States Development Programme, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the OPEC International Development Fund, the Qatar Development Fund, and the Saudi Arabian Development Fund, agreed with the IMF and the World Bank to create a support mechanism tailored to the different needs of each country in economic distress.<\/p>\n
Members will join forces to find financial support for conflict zones, prioritize institutional structures, and identify policy gaps necessary to ensure lasting recovery.<\/p>\n
The announcement came on the sidelines of a conference on emerging market economies organized by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla.<\/p>\n
Syrian Foreign Minister Assad Hassan al-Shaybani, who was appointed in December, attended a high-level meeting organized as part of the event.<\/p>\n
\u2018The IMF, the World Bank, the Arab Coordination Group, and the countries of the region emphasized their commitment to work together to complement each other’s efforts,\u2019 said a joint statement issued by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan. \u2018They emphasized the importance of strengthening coordination to support the recovery of these countries, as negative spillovers will affect everyone,\u2019 the statement added.<\/p>\n
It was stated that the next talks on this issue will be held at the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings to be held in Washington on April 25-27.<\/p>\n
According to The National<\/i>, Sunday’s agreement envisages that the informal commission will have three missions:<\/p>\n
The first mission aims to establish a continuous analytical mechanism to accurately assess the humanitarian and reconstruction needs of each country, identifying institutional priorities, policy gaps, and financing needs.<\/p>\n
The second mission envisages faster scaling up of existing and future IMF and World Bank development programs to support financial, monetary, and banking systems.<\/p>\n
The third mission aims to raise financial capital from the international community to finance reform programs in areas such as infrastructure reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n
However, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the US, which provided 41.8 percent of global humanitarian aid last year, has changed its aid policies, making it increasingly difficult to secure international financial support for conflict zones.<\/p>\n
Following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump last month, his administration decided to freeze aid from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID had been operating in key regions in the Middle East, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank. The cuts will have a negative impact on the functioning of the economies of many countries in the region and on support for some disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n
Last year, for example, USAID provided $704 million in humanitarian assistance to Egypt, $135 million to Iraq, and nearly $1 billion to the West Bank and Gaza. However, with the new decision, this aid is expected to come to an abrupt halt.<\/p>\n
In particular, Trump’s proposal in early February to \u2018take over\u2019 the Gaza Strip and relocate the approximately 2 million Palestinians living there to countries such as Egypt and Jordan has made this process even more uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Middle Eastern countries and several international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, have agreed to establish an informal commission to support the economic recovery of conflict-torn Middle Eastern countries, The National reports. This commission will focus in particular on Syria. The Arab Coordination Group, comprising the Abu Dhabi Development Fund, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6715,6716,319,2078,5390,1400,1098,916,6717,6723,6719,950,6720,6718,679,531,6721,6722,5875,1154],"class_list":["post-7893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middleeast","tag-arab-coordination-group","tag-conflict-zones","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-recovery","tag-financial-support","tag-gaza-strip","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-imf","tag-institutional-structures","tag-international-commission","tag-kristalina-georgieva","tag-middle-east","tag-mohammed-al-jadaan","tag-policy-gaps","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-syria","tag-unocha","tag-us-aid-freeze","tag-usaid","tag-world-bank"],"yoast_head":"\n