UN: The humanitarian aid agency will be "relentless" with the spending of dwindling funds!
The UN humanitarian aid agency will be "relentless" when prioritizing how to spend dwindling funds to help civilians in war zones such as Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, its new chief said on Wednesday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued its appeal for global funding for 2025, asking for $47 billion (€45 billion) to help 190 million people in 32 countries, although it estimates that 305 millions around the world need help.
Tom Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who took over as OCHA last month, said his agency is seeking less money in 2025 than it is this year. Its appeal for around $49bn (€47bn) this year is only 43% funded to date, one of the worst rates ever.
"We have to be absolutely focused on reaching those in greatest need and really relentless," he said Wednesday. "I choose that word carefully because it's a ruthless judgment to prioritize where funding goes and where we can have the biggest impact," he said. "It's a recognition that we've struggled in previous years to raise the money we need."
OCHA and many other aid groups, including the International Red Cross, have seen donations decline in recent years for troubled countries such as Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and newer ones such as Ukraine and Sudan . One consequence of the lack of funding was an 80% reduction in food aid to Syria, which has seen a sudden escalation of fighting in recent days, according to OCHA.
The largest requests for 2025 are for Syria a total of $8.7 billion (€8.3 billion) for domestic needs and for neighboring countries that have accepted Syrian refugees as well as Sudan with $6 billion (€5.7 billion), the occupied Palestinians. territories with $4 billion (€3.8 billion), Ukraine with around $3.3 billion (€3.1 billion) and the DRC with nearly $3.2 billion (€3 billion).
In response to questions about how much US President-elect Donald Trump, the UN's biggest donor, will spend on humanitarian aid, Fletcher said he expects to spend "a lot of time" in Washington in the coming months to talk with the new administration. Trump did not cut US funding for UN humanitarian budgets during his first term, although some aid organizations have said they fear that could happen during his second presidency.
"It's not just about America... we're facing the election of a number of governments that will be more suspicious of what the United Nations does," Fletcher said. "But I don't believe we can't make this case with them; I don't believe there's no compassion in these governments being elected," he added.
OCHA highlighted the various obstacles it faces, from conflicts lasting longer on average 10 years, to difficulties in gaining access to aid and increasing risks for humanitarians. A record number of aid workers have been killed this year, with the war in Gaza the biggest cause of 282 deaths recorded globally, the UN agency said last month.
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