— The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Jordan on September 30 donated $100,000 to the Ministry of Local Administration to support its efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 at the local level, particularly in three governorates: Irbid, Mafraq and Zarqa.

KOICA, the South Korean governmental agency implementing Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 112 partner countries, has been supporting Jordan since 2005, a statement from the agency said. 

As part of its support, KOICA has been constructing local schools through the "The Establishment of Three New Schools for Disadvantaged Students in Jordan (2017-2022/11.1 million USD)” project with the aim of providing quality education to disadvantaged students and refugees living in Irbid, Mafraq and Zarqa municipalities. 

In facilitating the implementation of the project, the Local Administration Ministry has been one of the KOICA’s key partners and the main coordinator between municipalities and KOICA, the agency said.

In the statement KOICA said that "they would not have been able to complete the project successfully without the support and cooperation of the Local Administration Ministry and municipalities” in the three governorates.

Since then the ministry and KOICA have been "steadily building a strong partnership” to enhance the quality of life of local residents in those regions which have also been greatly affected by the huge influx of refugees since the start of the Syrian crisis. 

With the recent outbreak of the coronavirus in Jordan, KOICA said that citizens of these areas are not only in need of enhanced access to education, but they are also in need to adapt hygiene practices to help mitigate the repercussions of the current crisis.

The ministry has intensified its efforts to preserve the health of the public by continuously sterilising streets, buildings, markets and neighbourhoods on a daily basis, the statement said.