Happy Nice Mall

GENEVA — When the United Nations made its final call for humanitarian funding before the pandemic, it asked about $29 billion from donors. But in just the past year, there has been a huge jump in the number of people who need help. And so the United Nations seeks more aid – $41 billion.

As the pandemic enters its third year and the cost of conflict and climate change soars, the United Nations said on Thursday it must help 183 million people in 63 countries suffering from its consequences. That was compared to 100 million people during the last appeal in 2019.

Martin Griffiths, the United Nations emergency coordinator, told reporters in Geneva while announcing the organization’s 2022 funding goal, that more than 1 percent of the world’s population is now displaced due to conflicts and disasters. About 45 million people currently face famine, some as a result of climate change.

The pandemic has already forced 20 million people into extreme poverty, he said, citing World Bank estimates and saying that the new Omicron variant will further increase the economic damage. “As Covid continues to threaten and mutate, we will continue to see increased humanitarian needs,” he said.

Funding for humanitarian aid has doubled in four years, with nine country programs each requiring more than $1 billion in aid, according to the United Nations. At the top of the list are Afghanistan and Syria, which each need more than $4 billion. They are followed by Yemen, which needs 3.9 billion dollars.

International aid in 2021 averted the threat of famine in South Sudan and Yemen, where UN agencies provided food for 10 million people.

But many aid programs are severely underfunded, forcing aid agencies to cut food rations. “Without urgent and sustained action to prevent famine, humanitarian needs will be far greater than what has happened in the last decade,” the United Nations said in its call.

Mr Griffiths voiced special alert regarding the conflict in Ethiopia, where the United Nations is trying to distribute aid to nine million people in the war-torn north and an additional 21 million in the rest of the country.

He also highlighted the political challenges ahead. aid to AfghanistanWhere the effects of severe drought and economic collapse have left 24 million people facing acute hunger. But international reluctance to help the Taliban led to the freezing of international reserves and banking operations.

Mr Griffiths said donor governments needed reassurance that the funding did not strengthen the Taliban, but that “the world needs to understand that there is a need to invest money in government structures” to ensure employee salaries are paid.