RIYADH: Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor-general of the Saudi aid agency KSrelief, recently participated virtually in a panel discussion on ambition for fragile and frontier markets, held as part of the World Economic Forum in Brussels, Belgium.

Al-Rabeeah said that the Kingdom had provided more than $145 billion in humanitarian assistance to 175 countries. As part of these efforts, KSrelief had implemented more than 4,000 relief projects in 113 countries, worth more than $8.5 billion, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

He emphasized the need to change global perceptions of fragile and frontier markets, moving beyond viewing them as areas of ongoing dependency to recognizing their potential to drive locally led economic growth and long-term resilience.

Al-Rabeeah outlined three strategic priorities to achieve this transition. First, ensuring safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access while upholding international humanitarian law and protecting relief workers. He noted that sustainable economic activity and recovery could not be achieved without secure access.

Second, adopting a principled, risk-sensitive approach to localizing relief efforts, ensuring that such models empowered local actors without increasing vulnerabilities or placing additional burdens on recipient communities.

Third, using catalytic, multisectoral financing to bridge widening funding gaps. He said that grants alone could not meet growing needs and called for blended finance, public-private risk-sharing mechanisms and private capital to stimulate investment in high-risk frontier markets.

Al-Rabeeah stressed the urgency of coordinating international efforts to move from emergency relief to lasting recovery, transforming fragile and frontier markets into self-sustaining economies that preserved human dignity.