Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has supported several amenity projects in 70 countries last year, providing educational, healthcare and infrastructure development assistance among others.

In 2018, QFFD disbursed $585mn out of which $451.8mn was for Arab countries, says its 2018 annual report.

On behalf of Qatar, QFFD provides relief and support for sustainable development in various developing countries. The priority areas of QFFD are education, healthcare, humanitarian relief, infrastructure development, and economic empowerment.

“Whether through targeting access to healthcare services for underprivileged and deprived communities, providing for educational facilities and resources for out-of-school children, or building necessary infrastructure such as roads, water and sanitation networks, QFFD projects have helped millions of people around the world overcome basic barriers to human needs,” says Khalifa bin Jassim al-Kuwari, director general of QFFD in the report.

Qatar extended support with an amount of $52mn to Syria and its neighbouring countries, providing comprehensive healthcare, housing, and vocational training. These have benefited internally displaced Syrians and refugees in neighbouring host countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. In addition, over 100,000 displaced persons from Deraa and Eastern Ghouta in Syria were also assisted through emergency response projects.

QFFD contributed a total of $3.5mn to various projects for Rohingya people in partnership with the UNHCR and local NGOs to provide life-saving healthcare and shelter in various camps in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

In Libya, over 600,000 people benefited from projects funded by QFFD to the tune of $8mn. The projects were aimed at supporting the health sector through training of staff, the supply of equipment and medicines, restoration of laboratories and the establishment of an electronic reference library.

In Yemen, Qatar continued to extend generous support by providing access to water and rehabilitating displaced persons. QFFD funded $6.5mn worth of projects in healthcare benefiting over 680,000 people.

QFFD also contributed $5mn to support UNICEF in fighting the cholera epidemic in the most affected areas in Yemen. These contributions are in response to the pledge that His Highness, the Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, made during the 73rd UN General Assembly. The $70mn pledge covers 53 projects in water, sanitation and institutional capacity building, and aims to benefit 8.5mn people, including 4.25mn children.

QFFD remains a major contributor to supporting the people of Palestine with contributions nearing $150mn. In 2018, over $75mn of emergency response aid went to Gaza. Also, Qatar provided generous support to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that focuses on aiding the Palestinian people both inside Palestine and in neighbouring host countries. The contributions to UNRWA totalled around $50mn, and the funds were utilised to sustain its education services for Palestinian youth in all five fields of operations, namely, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Syria and Lebanon.

In Sudan, the Fund’s contributions touched $112mn in 2018. With the completion of the 220 KV River Nile State Transmission Line Project, $85mn was disbursed to fund the project which mainly enables industrial-scale agricultural farming in the Northern and Khartoum states. This has benefited communities living along the transmission lines by providing them with more reliable and cost-effective access to electricity.

QFFD also supported various projects around the world, including the earthquake relief in Papua New Guinea, the provision of food relief for displaced persons in Iraq, in addition to several development projects in Chile, the Gambia, Kazakhstan, and the United States.

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