International donors have pledged $850m for the reconstruction and development of the Darfur region in Sudan.

The pledges were made at the one-day International Donors Conference for the Reconstruction of Darfur held in Cairo on 22 March. The donations, which fell well short of the conference’s goal of $2bn, have been earmarked for infrastructure and public projects including facilities for water, healthcare, housing, education and rural development.

The largest contributors were:

• The Jeddah-headquartered Islamic Development Bank ($355m)
• The government of Qatar ($200m)
• The government of Turkey ($150m with a further $50m pledged post-2015)
• The European Union ($95m)
• The government of Algeria ($10m)
• The government of Belgium ($6.8m)
• The government of Australia ($4m)
• The government of Morocco ($500,000)

Donors were given the opportunity to allocate funds to specific types of projects. Turkey’s donation will be used to help develop irrigation systems and build schools. Algeria earmarked its funds for medical facilities and job training programmes. Morocco donated its funds to programmes for sustainable agriculture.

Participants agreed to form a development bank to hold and distribute the funds and to finance and oversee development projects in the region.

The committee tasked with creating the development bank comprises of members of the government of Egypt, Qatar, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and other major donors. The conference was organised by the 57-nation OIC.