UN Humanitarian efforts this Year face $5 Billion Shortfall by Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes 9:37am 22nd Jul, 2009   21 July 2009    More than halfway through 2009, United Nations agencies and nearly 500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face a nearly $5 billion gap in funding to respond to the most severe crises, with the UN’s top relief official warning today that the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people have been hardest hit by the global recession.    Of the $9.5 billion appealed for to cover activities for 2009, less than half has been received to date, leaving a $4.8 billion gap, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).    “It is clear that the global recession puts pressure on the aid budgets of all donor governments, but of course it puts immeasurably more pressure on crisis-stricken people in poor countries,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.    "If just a fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars recently committed by governments to private financial institutions were allocated to humanitarian action, these appeals could already be fully funded, and those in need could be getting the best available protection and assistance, on time," Mr. Holmes stressed.    The situation in some of the severe humanitarian crises has deteriorated significantly in the first half of 2009 and will require renewed efforts and resources. In Kenya the funding requirements necessary to meet humanitarian needs have risen by $187 million because of acute food insecurity and an influx of new refugees fleeing escalating fighting in neighboring Somalia. In the occupied Palestinian territory, needs have increased by $341 million as a result of the military operation in Gaza at the beginning of the year and the continuing restrictions on entry of basic commodities to Gaza. In Sri Lanka, humanitarian requirements have risen by $114 million as the end of the long war there left 285,000 people displaced and in need of sustained help. In Zimbabwe, needs have gone up by $169 million.    "This recession is driving up humanitarian needs," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes told a news briefing in Geneva, where he held meetings with donor nations who will soon set their 2010 aid budgets.    A financing report prepared for those sessions stressed that the United Nations has received less than half the $9.5 billion it sought for humanitarian work this year. Yet some 43 million people need assistance this year, up from 28 million in 2008.    While there have been no large natural disasters so far in 2009, the global downturn has amplified needs in impoverished countries, and especially in those in protracted crisis such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.    Pakistan"s military incursion against Taliban fighters that has sent two million people from their homes has also stretched U.N. aid operations, which are meanwhile expanding in Iraq and Zimbabwe as a result of better aid worker-access there.    "Humanitarian need is increasing because of economic crisis and other global challenges," the report said, saying the loss of jobs and decline in remittances from relatives overseas had pushed more people into poverty and made food, health and education harder to access.    "There is likely to be a rise in distress migration, malnutrition and social unrest," it said. "Extreme economic hardship is likely to generate new, or exacerbate existing, social tensions and conflict.    For the most part, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, traditional donors such as the United States, European Union, Japan, Canada and the Nordics have not slashed their aid budgets, "many of which were set before the financial crisis exploded in the last quarter of 2008."    "However, budgets will be under greater pressure for 2010, because of the expected declines in government revenue if national income continues to fall and simultaneous increases in government borrowing for economic stimulus spending," the report circulated on Tuesday read.    The $4.8 billion shortfall for 2009 affects all major U.N. humanitarian projects, which involve supplying water, food, medical care and shelter, clearing landmines, and helping vulnerable people improve their agricultural output.    Countries with the biggest funding gaps include Sudan ($916 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($505 million), Zimbabwe ($458 million) and Somalia ($428 million).    Pakistan, which has seen the most dramatic change following the army offensive against militants that caused more than 2 million people to flee their homes, has a $312 million gap.    The U.N. report also stressed that Kenya has sunk into a more perilous situation, with food becoming more expensive and scarce, and refugee camps filling up with thousands of people fleeing violence in neighbouring Somalia, where insecurity has made it increasingly difficult and costly to deliver aid.    Zimbabwe"s funding needs have increased because of ongoing humanitarian pressures and also because the new power-sharing government has opened the door to more humanitarian activity.
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