UN reveals record $4.8bn funding gap for world aid

THE United Nations yesterday revealed a record $4.8 billion (€3.37bn) funding gap for its 2009 aid programmes due to strained foreign assistance levels and a ten-fold increase in needs in Pakistan.

“It is clear that the global recession puts pressure on the aid budgets of all donor governments, but of course it puts immeasurably more pressure on crises-stricken people in poor countries,” said UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes.

Holmes said the UN has received less than half the $9.5bn it sought for humanitarian work this year.

The shortfalls are biggest in Sudan ($916 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo ($505m), Zimbabwe ($458m) and Somalia ($428m), with big needs also in the Palestinian territories ($391m) and Iraq ($374m).

The most dramatic rise in needs has been for Pakistan, where an army offensive against militants has caused more than two million people to flee their homes in recent weeks, the statement said. Pakistan’s funding gap is now $312m.