The Syria Recovery Trust Fund (SRTF) is a multi-donor trust fund initiated by the Group of Friends of the Syrian People and its Working Group on Economic Recovery and Development. It serves to channel grant funding from the international community in a transparent and accountable manner into projects inside Syria with the objective to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people.The Framework Agreement to establish the SRTF was signed on 2 September 2013. The parties to the agreement include the three original donors: the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America, together with the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SOC), as the legitimate representative of the Syrian People, the German Development Bank KfW as Trustee and the SRTF Management Unit. Denmark also signed on the same day, subsequently followed by Sweden Finland, Japan, the United Kingdom, the State of Kuwait, France, Italy and the Netherlands, chronologically. In their important functions as the first and second host countries to the Fund's operational management, Turkey and Jordan joined the SRTF as a permanent member and part of the SRTF governance structure In 2014 and 2015, respectively. The purpose of the SRTF is to reduce the suffering of the Syrian people and assist the SOC in providing essential services to Syrians. Through the SRTF, donors pool their funds to finance priority projects for essential services in sectors such as water, health, electricity, education, food security, solid waste removal, as well as other sectors including rule of law, agriculture, transportation, telecommunication, public enterprise, and housing.