The donor conference is underway

Just a short post today as I wrote a longer-than-usual post yesterday on the future of Bahrain.

Some of you may have read a post earlier this month (Kuwait leads action against Asad) about Kuwait hosting a donor conference to secure aid for Syrian refugees. Today I read a Financial Times article reporting on the conference which is now underway. Entitled Donors pledge more aid to Syria, the article reports that the summit has so far resulted in $600million from Kuwait and the UAE, and a further $300million from Saudi Arabia.

I hope that these will not be the only financial aid commitments from the Arabian Peninsula countries over the coming days. For once, I think competition amongst the countries of the Arabian Peninsula for recognition as THE Pan-Arab leader may be a good thing as aid pledges from once country in the region could be met with higher pledges from surrounding states, eager to be seen as Pan-Arab supporters. I do hope I'm right as the UN report that up to $1.5billion is required to support the 750,000 refugees and 4 million Syrians still in the country.

On the one hand, it is good to see Kuwait make good on its promise to organise a donor conference, and indeed, even better to see that the conference seems to be generating the desired results. That said, the FT journalist does raise a serious concern that the aid, once pledged, is taking way too long to arrive on the front line where it is most required. This is clearly the next challenge. So come on countries of the Arabian Peninsula...if one of you really wants to be seen as a Pan-Arab leader then step up and start helping with the complicated task of dishing out the millions of dollars you can so easily afford to pledge.