Under the wise leadership of HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the State of Qatar is generously extending its benevolent hands to the surrounding regions and far-flung parts of the world.
Qatar has an enduring commitment towards providing humanitarian assistance and much support to numerous countries worldwide, achieving lofty concepts that underpin international and humanitarian cooperation, translating the principles upon which the United Nations is based to further achieve stability and security and strengthening peace and justice for the peoples of the world.
Many countries have benefited from the assistance Qatar has provided during the last short period which included over 100 countries in every single continent of the world. The humanitarian and development assistance by Qatar included remote and multiple geographical regions. The aid is not exclusively limited to the Arab regional or Islamic geographical neighborhood.
The assistance provided by Qatar are mostly directed to low-income countries, least developed countries (LDCs), along with natural disasters or conflict-stricken countries, as Qatar gives especial priority to LDCs and is keen to deliver assistance to the affected people and victims through bilateral and multilateral channels based on the best practices in a high professional manner.
Qatar's benevolent hands in reaching out to far-flung parts of the world are not solely confined to providing aid but goes beyond to include establishment of development projects in many developed countries to support them in the fields of economic and social empowerment.
The nature and quality of aid provided by Qatar are not focused on specific fields but largely vary and are characterized by diversity with transition from urgent relief in times of emergency to reconstruction programs and contribution to supporting sustainable development projects such as health and education projects, countering food security issues arising from climate change and stepping up efforts to offer scientific, practical, and drastic solutions.
Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) is the key tool to execute Qatar's policies in the international development field, as QFFD is the countrys gateway to support peoples of the afflicted developed countries through providing all financial tools and programs to achieve comprehensive development worldwide.
QFFD strives to be the bedrock of relief and development efforts through upholding Qatar's international development obligations and has made accelerated milestones through supporting projects and providing financial grants in over 50 geographical territories worldwide.
QFFD has made a remarkable progress in highlighting Qatar's role in development through the country's active engagement in meetings and forums with donors development funds, alongside international, development and relief organizations. The QFFD's operation has not been limited to providing financial grants but has largely contributed to engaging all international donors to fund projects in the priority countries, along with its persistent coordination with all local partners to endorse humanitarian response plans for the afflicted countries.
According to the latest figures, the total value of the humanitarian and development assistance QFFD has provided during 2022 reached up to approximately $708 million.
QFFD has been able to fund many development and relief projects worldwide leaving a tremendous and direct impact on the lives of over 42 countries' peoples during 2022 only.
QFFD has provided financial contributions in many vital sectors which included $101,300,000 to the education sector; and $71,300,000 to health care sector, whilst the contributions provided to relief sector reached up to approximately $443,200,000, in addition to other development sectors in which the allocated contributions reached up to approximately $92 million, along with QFFD's support to climate change projects.
In addition, QFFD has been successful in achieving several vital initiatives during 2022 mainly the "Sports for Development and Peace" initiative launched in collaboration with Qatar Charity. The initiative includes several projects that utilize sports as a tool to bolster humanitarian and development efforts aimed at consolidating peace in LDCs and vulnerable communities. It aims at collecting expertise and resources to consolidate sports transformative power in quest of enabling LDCs population's engagement in dialogue on physical and psychological health, in addition to employing it for youth empowerment.
On the margins of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly last year, QFFD launched the "Women in Conflict Zones Initiative" which aims to strengthen efforts to provide greater protection for women in conflict zones, through supporting their resilience based on the five pillars of the sustainable development goals.
QFFD works to improve livelihood of the world's poorest communities through providing financial tools to development countries in the Arab world and abroad. This is in addition to responding effectively to humanitarian and development aid, enabling peoples through enhancing education, health, social service, infrastructure, and economic development, as well as forging local and international partnerships to make a sustainable impact, capitalizing on Qatar's abilities and skills to achieve the intended outcomes and ultimately provide services in accordance with groundbreaking standards and innovative solutions.
In 2022, QFFD signed several agreements with global institutions such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the "growing together" initiative pertinent to climate change and agriculture in Africa and continues cooperation with Orbis organization to accomplish the process of tackling infectious blindness and eye diseases in Ethiopia.
QFFD also signed 7 agreements with the ministries of education in Uganda, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Haiti. The agreements focus on opportunities to provide good education for out-of-school children and further return them back to regular schools in collaboration with Education Above All Foundation through "Educate A Child" program to break barriers and counter difficulties, as the program targets nearly 1.6 million out-of-school children. (MORE)
Source: Qatar News Agency