By Asmau Ahmad
Inspite record government donations this year, the United Nations lacks the humanitarian aid funds required to make it through the year.
UN agencies were short 32 billion U.S. dollar to meet increased global needs until the end of December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Friday in Geneva.
A total of $17.6 billion was received this year, more than ever before, but the deficit remained larger than ever as funding requirements reached 49.5 billion dollars this year.
Worldwide hunger, displacement, conflicts and the effects of the climate crisis had contributed to the dire situation, leaving 204 million of the world’s most vulnerable people in need of help.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffths said millions of people suffered unprecedented hardship in conflicts, droughts, floods and other humanitarian emergencies where the scale of needs had vastly outpaced the resources, we have available.
“In some states and regions, less than 20 per cent of the required aid to provide people with food, shelter and medical assistance has been received, an OCHA spokesperson said.
This included Myanmar, El Salvador and Mozambique, for example.
The best funded areas included Libya, Somalia and the Central African Republic, where between 69 per cent and 79 per cent of estimated required aid had been provided.
Griffiths released 100 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) on Friday to help aid underfunded humanitarian operations.
That brought the total amount released from the fund to 250 million dollars this year, a record high.
The money would be distributed across 11 states including Yemen, South Sudan, Myanmar, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
