Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

UN aid agencies are facing their biggest funding gap ever as a result of both the large number of crises unfolding across the world and of the west prioritizing relief funds for Ukraine.

Since the start of the year, the UN has raised less than one-third of the funds needed to help hundreds of millions across the world, with donor countries prioritizing aid for Ukraine’s overwhelmingly white and Christian populace than for people fleeing violence and famine in West Asia and Africa.

“The war in Ukraine has illustrated, very starkly, how it is possible to rapidly and extensively mobilize support for refugees and respond to humanitarian needs — when political commitment is there,” Kathryn Mahoney, the global spokeswoman for the UNHCR, told the New York Times.

/.../The tracker, compiled by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, shows total commitments of $84.9 billion for Ukraine. UN aid agencies, on the other hand, need only $48.7 billion to aid more than 200 million people worldwide.

According to the UNHCR, 43 percent of the people it serves live in only 12 countries — including Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan — and in all 12, its programs are operating at less than 30 percent funding.