International development agencies could face a major funding shortfall of around US$10.7 billion for humanitarian programmes in 2017 if additional finances are not secured before the end of the year, according to the United Nations (UN).
Speaking at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2017, Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator and under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, stressed the need for more funding by saying the scale of humanitarian crises around the world is “greater than at any time since the United Nations was founded”.
“Funding in support of the plans will translate into life-saving food assistance to people on the brink of starvation in the Lake Chad Basin and South Sudan; it will provide protection for the most vulnerable people in Syria, Iraq and Yemen,” he added.
International donors have already committed US$11.4 billion to the current global appeal. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that around US$22 billion is still needed to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to 93 million of the most vulnerable people across 33 developing countries.
More than 128 million people around the world are afflicted with the fallout of conflict, displacement, natural disaster and disease. With emerging crises unfolding in countries such as Haiti and Myanmar, many believe that figure is likely to grow in the next 12 months.
Medecins Sans Frontières, an independent medical humanitarian organisation, reports that thousands of people in Haiti remain without adequate shelter, food and water following the impact of Hurricane Matthew. Of the total affected population, many in the remotest Haitian communities have received almost no assistance in the two months following the event.
On 1 December 2016, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, issued an apology to Haiti for the United Nation’s role in bringing cholera to the island-nation in 2010. Ban has since proposed that US$400 million in aid be mobilised to help fight cholera, though acknowledged there are challenges to financing the package.
Of the US$200 million needed to fix Haiti’s water and sanitation system and treat Haitians for cholera, only US$500,000 has so far been confirmed.
“Cholera is a treatable and preventable disease.” said Ban. “What is standing in the way is adequate resources and means of delivery.”