UN calls for $47 billion in humanitarian aid

The United Nations on December 4 called on rich countries to provide $47 billion in aid in 2025 to help about 190 million people displaced by conflict and fighting hunger.

The world is facing “unprecedented levels of hardship” and the UN hopes to be able to help people in 32 different countries by 2025, including poor people in Sudan, Syria, Gaza and Ukraine, according to the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Tom Fletcher.

The appeal for next year comes at a time when the 2024 aid appeal is still less than half of its target and there are concerns that rich countries will cut aid in the coming period.

It remains the fourth largest appeal in OCHA’s history, but Mr Fletcher said some 115 million people would not receive assistance due to a lack of funding.

OCHA said aid workers had been forced to make difficult choices, cutting food aid by up to 80% in Syria and water services in cholera-hit Yemen.

The United Nations has cut its aid appeal for 2024 to $46 billion from $56 billion in 2023, due to “declining donor generosity”.

But so far, this year’s total funding has been only 43 percent complete, one of the lowest rates on record. Of that, the United States has contributed more than $10 billion, about half of the aid the United Nations has called for.

During his first term as US President, Donald Trump suspended some spending on the United Nations, but kept the aid budget for the agency unchanged.

In the coming term, aid officials and diplomats are concerned that the US President-elect will cut the aid budget for the United Nations.