GENEVA: The United Nations on Wednesday (Nov 4) sought US$47 billion in aid for 2025 to help around 190 million people fleeing conflict and battling starvation, at a time when this year’s appeal is not even half-funded and officials fear cuts from Western states including the top donor, the US.
Facing what the new UN aid chief Tom Fletcher describes as “an unprecedented level of suffering”, the UN hopes to reach people in 32 countries next year, including those in war-torn Sudan, Syria, Gaza and Ukraine.
“The world is on fire, and this is how we put it out,” Fletcher told reporters in Geneva.
“We need to reset our relationship with those in greatest need on the planet,” said Fletcher, a former British diplomat who started as head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last month.
The appeal is the fourth largest in OCHA’s history, but Fletcher said it leaves out some 115 million people whose needs the agency cannot realistically hope to fund:
“We’ve got to be absolutely focused on reaching those in the most dire need, and really ruthless.”
The UN cut its 2024 appeal to US$46 billion from US$56 billion the previous year as donor appetite faded, but it is still only 43 per cent funded, one of the worst rates in history. Washington has given over US$10 billion, about half the funds received.
Aid workers have had to make tough choices, cutting food assistance by 80 per cent in Syria and water services in cholera-prone Yemen, OCHA said.
