UN reviews humanitarian financing for 125 million people in need

A new UN report on humanitarian financing offers specific ways to improve the delivery of assistance to 125 million people in need, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told UN member states at a briefing here Wednesday.

"We must make good on our promise to leave no one behind, by taking bold action for the 125 million people who today depend on the international community to survive," said Eliasson. "(This) report offers specific ways to help reduce demand, cut costs and widen the resource base."

The briefing provided an opportunity for UN member states to discuss the report which was prepared by a high-level panel on humanitarian financing and officially launched in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on Jan. 17.

Eliasson said that the report would form an important basis for discussion at the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit which will take place in Turkey in May. He called on member states to ensure that their countries would be represented at the summit at the highest-level, that is to say by their heads of state or government ministers.

"The World Humanitarian Summit is our opportunity to unite in the name of our common humanity -- and to take a stand against the horrific levels of suffering and misery that we witness in the world today," he said.

Both natural and man-made disasters have led to an increase in demand for UN humanitarian financing, leaving many appeals for assistance critically underfunded.

Eliasson said that natural disasters have touched millions of people from Central America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, exacerbated by droughts and food insecurity caused by extreme weather phenomena such as El Nino.

Man-made disasters, however, have placed the biggest strain on humanitarian resources, not least of which is the conflict in Syria, said Eliasson, who believed that the conflict in Syrian has caused the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Endit