World Bank’s support to refugee host countries is up to three standards

The World Bank will continue its plan to support the countries hosting Syrian refugees to help relieve the burdens they have been shouldering after homing millions of Syrians, the bank’s vice president Hafez Ghanem said Wednesday.

Ghanem made these remarks during his meeting with the Door-Knocking delegation, which is visiting Washington.

The distribution of the Bank’s support among countries of the MENA region is subject to three main standards, he added.

First, it is about the percentage of the Syrian refugees out of the population of the host countries. The second is the number of the refugees. The third is about the living conditions of the refugees and how successful they have been to get a decent life and a source of income in the host country.

Asking about the reason behind not sending Egypt any support to handle the number of Syrian refugees living there, Ghanem stated that the number is still relatively low. Syrians in Egypt have substantially succeeded in having a decent life there, getting suitable job opportunities, and working in a number of main economic sectors, he added.

In funding the Syrian refugee’s crisis, the World Bank focuses on a number of Arab countries, notably Jordan, which is the number one recipient of the bank’s support in this field, followed by Iraq and Lebanon at the second and third positions respectively, he added.

WB had announced, in a conference in London, that it aims to provide $20 billion to the Middle East and North African region over five years started from 2015 to support the case of the Syrian refugees.