Crises, wars, climate change: UN need 51.5 billion emergency aid

Pandemic, wars and the effects of climate change: millions of people around the world are dependent on humanitarian emergency aid – and the trend is rising. But donations from member countries are stagnating.

The United Nations will need 51.5 billion dollars in the coming year for urgently needed humanitarian aid worldwide. That is about 49.6 billion euros. The need is alarmingly high, said UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths – against the background of the “extreme events” of 2022: The extreme events – these are droughts and floods due to climate change, the ongoing consequences of the corona pandemic – and above all the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

Griffiths had expected the UN to deal primarily with the effects of climate change in humanitarian aid this year. But things turned out differently, he says. “Since the war in Ukraine began in February, our attention has been drawn to completely different things.”

“Huge and depressing number”

And above all, more and more people in need: 339 million people, according to calculations by the UN Emergency Relief Office, will be dependent on humanitarian aid by 2023. That’s 65 million more than this year. “339 million people would be the third most populous country in the world after China and India,” says the UN emergency aid coordinator. “It’s a massive and depressing number.”

In Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, more than 83 million people are in acute need. The presentation of the financing plan of the UN emergency aid office is also an appeal to donor countries like Germany. Because the financial need is increasing, but the donations from the member countries are stagnating – so the hole in the coffers of the aid organizations is getting bigger. In 2022, not even half of the required money came together.

hope for solidarity

And: There are big differences in the financing of aid programs. “Humanitarian needs for Ukraine have of course been met very well and we are very pleased about that. So far this has not led to a reduction in funding for other areas, but I don’t know if that can be sustained,” says Griffiths. There are countries in which only about 16 to 20 percent of the need is covered – in others it is up to 90 percent. “A lot of us don’t understand that.”

The United Nations would like to put more resources into development aid, provide sustainable support and build structures. But since the financing is even more difficult, says Griffiths. The result is that only humanitarian emergency aid is being provided and the situation is getting worse from year to year. “I fear that the coming year will accelerate all the developments that we are currently seeing. I therefore hope that 2023 will be a year of solidarity, just as 2022 was a year of suffering.”