The Jordan Response Platform for the Syria Crisis (JRPSC) constitutes the strategic partnership mechanism between the Government of Jordan, donors, and UN agencies for the development of a refugee, resilience-strengthening, and development response to the impact of the Syrian crisis on Jordan.
With the Syrian conflict in its fifth year, Jordan is hosting an unprecedented number of Syrian nationals. Their number currently exceeds 1.26 million, including over 656,000 registered refugees who have obtained their service card from the Ministry of Interior. As the crisis endures, the cost of hosting refugees – both in camps as well as in Jordanian host communities where nearly 85% of refugees currently reside – continues to accumulate, quickly outpacing the support provided by the international community. The demographic shock of absorbing such a large number of refugees over a relatively short period of time, in combination with the impacts of decreased economic activity with Syria, has created a situation that exceeds the parameters of an exclusively refugee crisis. Jordan’s economic growth, fiscal health, and ability to provide basic services have all been affected, threatening to undermine the country’s recent development progress. The scope and longevity of the crisis is not only defying conventional refugee responses and development approaches, it is also challenging standard aid and coordination mechanisms.
In order to overcome some of the above mentioned challenges, and in line with the aid coordination principles established in the Paris Declaration (2005) and subsequently in Accra (2009) and Busan (2011), the Government of Jordan is pioneering a new approach that combines the existing refugee, resilience-strengthening and development responses to the Syria crisis in Jordan, under one national planning and coordination framework. On 1 September 2014, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) transitioned to the Jordan Response Platform for the Syria Crisis (JRPSC), using the functionalities of the pre-existing Host Community Support Platform (HCSP) — established in September 2013 to address the impacts of the crisis on Jordanian host communities — as its backbone. Today, the JRPSC is the strategic partnership mechanism between the Government of Jordan, donors, UN agencies and NGOs for the development of an integrated refugee, resilience-strengthening and development response to the impact of the Syria crisis on Jordan: the Jordan Response Plan (JRP).