UNRWA’s Commissioner General declared the school year 2015/2016 to open according to the educational plan in Palestine on August 24, in Jordan on September 1, in Lebanon on September 7, and in Syria on September 13.

Commissioner General said in a press conference, Wednesday, “I have taken this decision first and foremost because of how central education is to the identity and dignity of Palestine refugees and of the 500,000 boys and girls whose future depends on learning and developing skills in our 685 schools.”

He said, “We began by taking significant internal measures to reduce costs and then engaged our partners, including host countries, member states and other donors, to overcome this major funding crisis and risk to the education program. Our engagement included an extraordinary session of the UNRWA Advisory Commission and a special report to the Secretary-General, which was circulated to the General Assembly. The reactions and response we witnessed were remarkable. I wish to pay the warmest of tributes to a number of key countries and players involved in supporting us at this very difficult time.”

He expressed his “profound appreciation” to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates “whose remarkable combined contributions cover almost half of the 2015 deficit,” and to the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden and Slovakia, “who have together contributed generously to help address the funding shortfall.”

He clarified that the total contributions from these states up to the moment reached 78.9 million US Dollars, from the total deficit of 101 million.

UNRWA’s Commissioner General welcomed the efforts of the European Union to mobilize additional contributions in a few weeks. He also pointed out that there are two countries that are seriously studying making their own donations.

He noted that UNRWA still pursues its second crucial goal, which is “to place UNRWA on a more stable financial footing for the future,” and said that it will work hard during the coming months taking additional internal measures to achieve that goal. In addition, UNRWA will work hard to engage host countries, member states, and donor states, and to achieve the goal of better protecting for the human development measures, especially education and health services.

Commissioner General said that UNRWA will participate in a series of important meetings with the partners, for example; the meetings on ministerial-level of the Arab league in September, and meetings of the UN General Assembly, in order to determine the ways and measures to improve future financial stability of UNRWA.

Contributions from donor countries in US Dollars:

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: 19 million (confirmed on 12 August)
State of Kuwait: 15 million (confirmed on 17 August)
United Arab Emirates: 15 million (confirmed on 18 August)
United States of America: 15 million (confirmed on 18 August)
Switzerland: 5.15 million (confirmed on 30 July)
United Kingdom: 4.69 million (confirmed on 12 August)
Norway: 2.44 million (confirmed on 6 August)
Sweden: 1.7 million (confirmed on 19 August)
Slovak Republic : 0.05 million (confirmed on 25 July)

In addition to:

Al-Khair Foundation: 0.72 million (confirmed on 20 July)
Basque Government: 0.11 million (confirmed on 30 July)