$2.5 Billion Global Shortfall in Aid

UN Humanitarian Chief Cites $2.5 Billion Global Shortfall in Aid for 2007

New York, Jul 17 2007 11:00AM

The top United Nations humanitarian official said today that, six months after the launch of an appeal to meet the most urgent needs of 27 million people in nearly 30 countries, the world body and its partners still require $2.5 billion to respond to the world™s most severe crises. “Despite some improvement, funding continues to be inadequate, delayed and poorly coordinated, which hampers the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people in the world,” said John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), $1.8 billion has been mobilised through the 2007 Humanitarian Appeal, equalling 43 per cent of funding requirements – a slight improvement on the mid-point of previous years (36 per cent in 2006).

In the occupied Palestinian territories, for example, low donor response to the Appeal meant that a number of urgent humanitarian programmes had to be suspended, OCHA said.

In regions emerging from conflict, such as the Great Lakes and West Africa, money is often not available to build emergency preparedness capacity and to undertake other recovery actions critical to support the transition to peace and development.

OCHA also noted that significant funding disparities persist among appeals. Of the 19 appeals, five have received less than 33 per cent of requirements at mid-year: Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, the occupied Palestinian territories, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo. Funding in relation to requirements is highest for Burundi (62 per cent) and Chad (60 per cent). Overall, the gap between best-funded and least-funded crises is not narrowing, and the funding disparities bear no relation to the severity of the various crises, the Office added. This means that the international community is still far from realising its agreed objective of funding humanitarian assistance in proportion to need.

ENDS

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