UN refugee agency launches new campaign to address funding shortfall for shelter

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Wednesday launched a new global campaign, called Nobody Left Outside, to deal with a half-billion-dollar deficit in funds to provide adequate shelter for refugees.

"This huge shortfall is severely undermining efforts to tackle one of the largest global displacement crises since World War II," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, citing information from the UN agency.

The campaign calls on the private sector to contribute funds for shelter solutions for two million refugees, the spokesman said. "It is aimed at individuals, companies, foundations and philanthropists worldwide."

Without a massive stepping up and widening of global support, UNHCR warned, millions of people fleeing war and persecution face homelessness or inadequate housing in countries from Lebanon and Mexico to Tanzania.

Providing shelter on a global scale is a massive logistical undertaking. Every year, UNHCR purchased 70,000 tents and more than two million tarpaulins -- the iconic plastic sheets which have come to symbolize the response to humanitarian emergencies.

Outside of camps, refugees rely on UNHCR support to find housing and pay the rent in towns and cities across dozens of countries bordering conflict zones.

These operations are expected to cost 724 million U.S. dollars in 2016. Yet only 158 million dollars are currently available, a dramatic half-billion-dollar shortfall which threatens to leave millions of men, women and children without adequate shelter and unable to begin rebuilding their lives. Endit