UNHCR threatens to cut programs amid funding shortages

He expresses his concern, as more than 100 million people have been forcibly displaced around the world this year. The leader of High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said his organization might have to drastically reduce its programs in the face of a shortage of funds, Monday 10 October.

Speaking at the start of the UN agency’s annual executive committee meeting, Filippo Grandi expressed concern about the agency’s financial situation. He pointed out that the war in Ukraine had put the organization under pressure, and called “all donors” to be more generous.

“If we don’t receive at least an additional $700 million… by the end of the year, we will be forced to make severe cuts with negative and sometimes dramatic consequences for refugees and communities. reception”he warned.

According to Filippo Grandi, the war in Ukraine caused “Europe’s largest and fastest-moving displacement crisis since World War II”increasing the organization’s expenses by more than a billion dollars and bringing its annual budget to 10.7 billion (more than 11 billion euros).

The UNHCR chief hailed the generosity of donors in the face of the war in Ukraine, but stressed that this has a negative impact on funding for other crises, contrary to what donor countries had promised. The organization is therefore sorely lacking in funds to respond to the serious refugee crises caused by conflicts or unrest in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Sahel region.

Funds to help the millions of Syrian refugees arriving in countries neighboring Syria are “at the lowest level ever reached”also warned Filippo Grandi.

In recent years, UNHCR has managed to increase the funds it raises from private sources, from $421 million in 2019 to more than $1 billion this year. But Filippo Grandi stressed that as a United Nations agency created by member states, “we cannot depend on the goodwill of individuals or companies alone”.


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