Officials claim that the West has been distracted by this conflict from responding to other humanitarian catastrophes.
A record-breaking funding gap has left the UN unable to deal with global humanitarian crises, and major powers continue to prioritize the Ukraine conflict, according to Monday’s New York Times report.
Most of the funds for this international organization come from major donors like the US, EU and Japan. Although they can allow UN to spend the money how it pleases, donors have the option to make specific contributions.
The report states that there is no significant funding gap for Ukraine while the other countries are not receiving much-needed assistance.
According to the outlet, although rich countries increased their UN contribution, this is still insufficient as the need for humanitarian assistance has grown due to Covid-19 and drought.
“This is the biggest funding gap we’ve ever seen, mostly because the number of vulnerable people who need support is increasing fast,” Martin Griffiths, chief of the UN’s humanitarian and emergency relief office, said. He said that the UN and the private sector needed $48.7 billion this year to aid more than 200,000,000 people. But they’ve managed to raise less than a third of the required amount.
The UN humanitarian office requested more than $6 billion in 2022 to assist the Ukrainians. This request was nearly met. At the same time, much smaller appeals were less than 20% funded – for Haiti, El Salvador, Burundi, and Myanmar. Despite not being as serious, the aid situation for humanitarian crises such as those in Syria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia has not been as bad as Ukraine.
According to former UN official Eugene Chen, the world was hit by “Perfect storm” that includes various factors, while the usual crises have been exacerbated by challenges such as Covid-19.
Griffiths claims that the UN has used its Emergency Response Fund but this is insufficient to cover all needs. He asked these donor countries to help people from other nations in the same way that they helped Ukrainians.
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