Geneva, Jan. 2, (dpa/GNA) – The United Nations received just under 40% of the donations it needed to deal with numerous major humanitarian crises in 2023, although Germany did step up to be the biggest donor after the United States.
The global figure was significantly less than in any other year since 2016, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
The list of donations includes money for various humanitarian aid programmes coordinated by OCHA, each of which provided funding for several UN organizations and partner organizations.
It is possible that individual contributions for 2023 will still be received after the turn of the year, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
In total, UN organizations had requested $56.7 billion via OCHA to help alleviate crises around the world in 2023. But only 38.3% of this had been collected by the end of 2023.
In all other years since 2016, at least 50% of the required funds had always been donated, while in 2019 the figure was 64% and in 2022 it was 58%.
The need for donations has increased significantly over the years. The estimated amount for 2023 was almost three times as high as in 2016.
The largest 2023 donor for inter-agency UN humanitarian programmes was the US, which donated $9.5 billion, almost 44% of the total amount. Germany was just ahead of the European Commission, with both accounting for 9.5% of the total donated funds while the United Kingdom followed a long way behind with 3.4%.