Severe shortage in funding for UNRWA services!! – Al-Baath Media

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced that it will carry over a large amount of its expenses to the new fiscal year, warning of a severe shortage in funding for its activities.

In a statement to Sputnik, Mahmoud Khalaf, coordinator of the Joint Committee for Palestinian Refugees, said that the current year 2023 is the most difficult in terms of the financial crisis facing UNRWA, as the agency carried over a financial deficit of $80 million from last year, which is the largest in decades.

He added that the financial deficit comes amid a real crisis and the reluctance of many countries to make pledges to UNRWA to pay financial amounts, especially after the Brussels conference held last November under the title “Multi-Year Funding,” where only 60% of the funding was provided.

He pointed out that this portends serious repercussions on the services provided to Palestinian refugees, especially those related to health, education, environmental health and the food basket, which necessitates the call to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA and the international community to launch a distress call to the pledging and supporting countries to provide sufficient budgets to the agency.

The coordinator of the Joint Committee explained that the agency is preparing on the 24th of this month to launch the UNRWA “emergency appeal,” according to which at least $400 million must be secured to cover food and health needs, so that UNRWA can develop its plans for 2023, stressing that the necessary needs provided by UNRWA are below the minimum as a result of the financial crisis circling around again.

It is worth noting that the Commissioner-General of the Agency in the Near East, Philippe Lazzarini, had warned, some time ago, of the Agency’s inability to fulfill its mandate if the same funding continues in the future, considering that the Agency faces a severe funding shortage with “the largest debt in its history.”