The United Nations promotes relief activities in many countries around the world.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Relief and Works Director Martin Griffiths has authorized allocations from the UN Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for relief operations in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East.

OCHA said the $125 million in aid will help improve the lives of 250 million people affected by conflict, climate change, natural disasters, disease, displacement and other crises.

This additional funding brings CERF’s 2023 allocation through the underfunded emergency mechanism to $270 million, a record high since CERF was established in 2005, reflecting the soaring need for humanitarian assistance.

OCHA believes that the CERF allocation will help scale up humanitarian assistance to some of the world’s most underserved, protracted crises. Afghanistan and Yemen will each receive $20 million; Burkina Faso and Myanmar ($9 million each); Haiti and Mali ($8 million each). The refugee support operation in Bangladesh will receive $8 million, while Uganda will receive $6 million…

According to OCHA, in 2023, the United Nations mobilized more than $55 billion for humanitarian aid activities worldwide. However, so far, donations have only met less than 30% of the above needs. This reflects “a surge in humanitarian needs while, in fact, regular donor funding has not kept up.”

Griffiths also pointed out the sad reality that aid agencies often have very little funding at a time when people's needs are increasing and forcing them to expand. "Thanks to the generosity of many donors, we can be confident that CERF will fill the gaps, with the result that we will save lives. However, we also call on individual donors to join in - this is a fund by all, for all," the UN Deputy Secretary-General stressed.

Sharing the above concerns, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq warned that millions of people will go hungry this year unless donors provide nearly $39 billion to respond to the UN's appeal.

In a statement on September 5, Mr. Haq noted that this month, the World Food Programme (WFP) was forced to cut food assistance to an additional 2 million people in Afghanistan due to lack of funds, bringing the total number of Afghans who have lost aid this year to 10 million.

In the coming months, the WPF said it will only be able to feed 3 million people. The Rome-based agency said it will need $1 billion to reach 21 million people in need over the next six months./.

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