Syria Recovery Trust Fund

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF) was launched at late 2013 and its trustee is the German Development Bank KfW. The SRTF is dedicated to financing the restoration and provision of essential public services and infrastructure while strengthening the resilience and improving the conditions of the Syrian population in areas primarily held by moderate opposition groups. It also aims to rebuild and enhance the capacity of the local institutions that provide such services. In practice the SRTF is Funding local level public sector community infrastructure programs, with priority focus on the water, health, electricity, education, food security, and waste/rubble removal sectors, and secondary considerations in the rule of law, agriculture, transportation, communication, public enterprise and housing sectors. It's amounts to 90 MEUR at the moment and it has a large project pipeline with 22 approved projects, valued at 47 MEUR so far. The operations have begun well and the management and risk management systems are robust. The operations are taken place at very high risk environment, practically on war zone. The Syrian Interim Government (SIG) of the Syrin Opposition Coalition (SOC) is directly engaged at the management of the fund, thus making the intervention political. Finland has acknowledged the SOC as one legitimate representative of Syrian people. Finland, Sweden and Denmark have jointly put together the 10 MEUR which is the threshold for acquiring a seat on the Steering Board. The Nordics rotate the seat every half a year. Finnish first installment was 3 MEUR in 2013 and now the 2nd installment is 3 MEUR as well.