Humanitarian Funding

Funding constraints mean that the World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to limit emergency aid to only 6.2 million of the most vulnerable people in need across West Africa, scaling back from an initial target of assisting 11.6 million, the United Nations agency said on Wednesday. Millions in the Sahel will be stranded without aid as the lean season sets in and hunger starts to peak. 

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently calling for $629.7 million to sustain and scale up life-saving assistance in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). The UN agency reported Tuesday that conditions for those housed in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have fled conflict in the provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu have become dire with the advent of the rainy season. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have warned in a joined statement Friday that WFP will be forced to make additional cuts to already reduced food assistance to refugees in Chad in April and may have to completely suspend assistance by May without immediate and sustained funding. WFP is appealing for $142.7 million over the next six months to maintain its refugee support program. 

United States national Cindy McCain took over Wednesday as the new head of the World Food Programme (WFP). The new Executive Director said in her first statement that her priorities for the United Nations agency were increasing its resources, improving its effectiveness and scaling up partnerships and innovation.

Humanitarian aid in Yemen has been cut by 62 percent over five years, endangering the lives and futures of the country's most vulnerable people, especially children, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children International warned on Monday. The continued funding cuts come as two-thirds of Yemen’s population – 21.6 million people, including 11 million children – are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection this year.

According to reports from the humanitarian office of the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 50,000 people have been forced to flee in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province following escalating attacks by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and heightened fear of violence. The province is the epicenter of an ongoing armed conflict, and internal displacement is prevalent.

United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) Martin Griffiths on Tuesday released US$100 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support underfunded humanitarian emergencies in seven countries in Africa, the Americas and the Middle East. The crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan and Syria top the list, receiving $20 million each.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has released US$125 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to boost underfunded humanitarian operations in fourteen countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Afghanistan and Yemen top the recipient list with $20 million each. 

International donors have failed to adequately support the ongoing humanitarian response in Yemen at the Sixth Senior Officials' Meeting of donor countries in Brussels today. The announced funding of just over $791 million represents less than a third (29 percent) of the $2.7 billion needed in Yemen this year to meet urgent humanitarian needs, including those of 9.8 million children.

United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher is warning that the post-war international system is facing its "greatest test since its creation" and that the humanitarian community is confronting a massive crisis of "funding, morale and legitimacy". The stark warning comes as extreme funding cuts to humanitarian aid by the United States are starting to have a devastating impact around the world, putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk and leaving tens of millions without access to the aid they desperately need.

The eighth edition of the "Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region" conference took place in Brussels on Monday, but saw only meager pledges from leading donors such as the European Union and the United States for this year's humanitarian response in Syria. In total, more than US$8.9 billion is needed to respond to the Syria crisis, making it the United Nations' largest humanitarian appeal worldwide.