Despite wars, earthquakes and hurricanes, the UN is cutting back on aid

The United Nations has cut its appeal for humanitarian aid by almost 20 percent over the next year, saying it must focus only on the most urgent cases even as the number of people facing conflict and climate crises grows sharply.

The move comes as the UN has so far received only about a third of the funding requested for this year. Against this background, the organization says it is forced to focus its appeal for 2024 on helping people who find themselves in the most life-threatening circumstances.

According to calculations by United Nations agencies and about 1,900 partner organizations, about 300 million people will need urgent humanitarian assistance next year. Yet the UN said so on Monday asked for a total of $46 billioncompared to the $57 billion it was seeking in 2023.

“It’s not because it’s not needed,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said of the reduced aid request. “The necessary support from the international community is not keeping pace with needs.”

The number of people forced from their homes by conflict or climate crises is at a record level for this century, the UN said in its appeal. Some 258 million people in 58 countries facing armed violence, floods or severe drought now face acute food shortages, including nearly 14 million children who are at immediate risk of death.

But despite extreme natural disasters this year, including earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, and Cyclone Freddy in southern Africa, and wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, countries have failed to reach anywhere near the $57 billion target. to donate. While donations always fall short of the requested total, funding for UN aid programs fell in 2023 for the first time in thirteen years – through the end of November they had received a total of just $20 billion, $4 billion less than the year before. .

That leaves the United Nations with impossible choices. In Syria, where conflict has raged for 13 years, the organization’s food program has reduced the number of recipients by 40 percent and halved the rations provided. In Afghanistan, which is struggling with an economic crisis, the number of people receiving aid fell from 13 million to three million between May and November.

“The consequences are tragic,” the UN said in announcing the latest appeal.

After decisions that Mr Griffiths acknowledged had caused sleepless nights, the United Nations and partner organizations have drawn up a reduced budget for 2024 that will focus only on the most critical, life-saving needs.

One of the priorities for 2024 will be Gaza, where Israel’s war with Hamas has displaced most of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents and destroyed much of the housing and civilian infrastructure.

The fighting in Sudan, where 10 months of war has left 30 million people in need of aid, means the country and the Middle East are expected to consume almost a third of the total aid budget for the coming year.

The UN appeal also calls for $3.9 billion to help Ukraine; $4 billion for Ethiopia, which is emerging from a civil war in the Tigray region; $3.2 billion for Afghanistan; and almost $1 billion for Myanmar, where the conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Mr Griffiths said cutting the aid budget to address the most life-threatening cases required a commensurate effort from governments and other multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, to meet broader humanitarian needs.

“If we do this, you have to respond first and foremost,” he said in a briefing for reporters. “We cannot have an optional partnership with the development community.”

The United Nations opened its appeal in Doha, where the United Arab Emirates is hosting the COP28 climate conference, a move that underlined Mr Griffiths’ hopes to expand the pool of donors and find new sources of financing to of the previously identified needs. in the UN humanitarian appeal. An agreement to set up at the conference this month a loss and damage fund To compensate the poorest and most vulnerable countries for the effects of climate change, approximately $700 million was pledged in the first week.

Fundraising for the United Nations still promises to be a struggle. Financing for climate adaptation will fall by 15 percent in 2022, the UN Environment Program reported last month. An event last week for the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, which called for $1 billion by 2024, has so far led to commitments of only $419 million.

That figure highlights growing challenges in raising money for multilateral aid programs. European and North American countries generally make up the top 10 donors to the emergency response fund, and in 2023 they accounted for more than 80 percent of contributions received. China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, gave less than half a million dollars to the response fund, less than half of Iceland’s contribution, with Beijing preferring to focus on bilateral commitments that give the country diplomatic influence. Saudi Arabia had promised $1 million but not delivered, and Singapore, one of the fifteen richest countries, gave $50,000.