UN to allocate $125M to ramp up poorly funded crises worldwide

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN Humanitarian Coordination Office on Tuesday announced an allocation of $125 million from the UN’s emergency fund to ramp up poorly funded humanitarian crises around the world.

"The support from the multi-donor Central Emergency Response Fund’s under-funded emergencies window will, with this allocation, reach the largest annual amount ever allocated, $270 million, to the highest number of countries," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a UN briefing in Geneva.

Humanitarian organizations in 14 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East will benefit from this latest injection of funds, Laerke said, adding that the humanitarian plans for these countries are currently between 18% and 36% funded.

While Afghanistan and Yemen top the recipient list with $20 million each, according to the spokesperson, the other recipients include Burkina Faso, Mali, Myanmar, and Haiti, Venezuela, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Cameroon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Malawi, Bangladesh and Uganda.

Laerke read UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths' remarks on the releasing of the funds saying: "It is a cruel reality that in many humanitarian operations, aid agencies are scraping along with very little funding right at a time when people’s needs compel them to scale up. Thanks to the generosity of a vast range of donors, we can count on the Central Emergency Response Fund to fill some of the gaps. Lives are saved as a result. But we need individual donors to step up as well - this is a fund by all and for all."

In 2023, global funding requirements have surpassed $55 billion to support 250 million people affected by conflict, the impact of the climate crisis, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, displacement and other crises, he underlined.

"Faced with these record needs, less than 30% of the funding required has been received," he added.