The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that halfway into 2023, it has only received 20 percent of the US$54.8 billion it needs this year to help people in need around the world. At the same time, the World Food Programme (WFP) continues to cut emergency food aid to millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance due to severe funding constraints.
At the end of last year, the number of people who needed humanitarian aid was a record 349 million, but that number has climbed now to 362 million. This means that today 1 in 22 people globally requires assistance. With needs growing exponentially, funding is struggling to keep pace.
OCHA also warns that unequal funding across emergencies and key sectors have hampered its ability to respond to surging needs. Current underfunded crises include Myanmar, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela, Somalia and Afghanistan. And many more.
“These funding gaps have real consequences on millions of people, and we encourage donors to continue to contribute generously to the humanitarian response plans”, Farhan Haq, UN spokesperson, said this week.
As of June 30, 2023, only US $11.18bn (20.4%) have been received. According to OCHA, at the end of 2022 the gap between what was needed and what was delivered in humanitarian assistance was 43 percent (US$22.15 billion).
Yet not all countries contribute to the financing. The bulk of the funding - more than 80 percent - is provided by just ten countries or supranational organizations. These include some of the world's largest economies, but by no means all.
At midyear, the United States of America, the European Commission, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Canada, Norway, France were the top humanitarian donors, accounting for 85 percent of global funding.
Many of the world's largest economies do not contribute at all, and numerous others participate only to a small extent. Among the most reluctant humanitarian donors in the world are: Brazil, China, India, Iran, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, and Turkey. As of June, these countries together accounted for less than 0.05 percent of global funding provided.
Underfunding is resulting in the continued suffering of millions of people. When far too little money is raised, humanitarian organizations are forced to decide to whom to allocate the scarce funds available.
Like most UN aid agencies, the World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian organization and the biggest recipient of appeal funding, is suffering a serious cash shortfall for its operations. Since March, the UN agency has therefore cut food aid for millions of people and suspended emergency assistance to millions more.
Among the countries and situations most affected by these cuts are Bangladesh (Rohingya refugees), Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Nigeria, and Yemen. But these persistent funding shortfalls have also led to ration cuts for Congolese refugees in Burundi or refugees hosted in Chad.
Cindy McCain, who took over as head of the World Food Program (WFP) in early April this year, has pledged to increase WFP funding and find new donors, but so far there have been no noticeable improvements.
Millions of vulnerable people in urgent need of assistance have not received life-saving support and face continued life-threatening hardship due to persistent funding gaps.
Further information
Website: Financial Tracking Service (FTS): The United Nations is tracking humanitarian donor contributions channeled by governments through UN agencies, UN funds, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
https://fts.unocha.org/