“The budgets cannot be compared with the growth in need. Our income in 2015 will be around 10% less than in 2014. The global humanitarian community is not broken – as a whole they are more effective than ever before. But we are financially broke,” Guterres told The Guardian on Sunday.
The fall in UN funding led to cuts to food rations and closure of clinics in conflict-torn countries, the UNHCR chief said, warning that the cuts would have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences.
“We know that we are not doing enough, we are failing the basic needs of people. The situation is beyond irreparable. If you look at the number of children who will see their lives so dramatically impacted by malnutrition and lack of psychosocial support, you will see this is already happening,” Guterres was quoted as saying.
According to the UN data, the current global humanitarian funding budget for all countries amounts to $19.52 billion. Only 22 percent of the response plan for Yemen in 2015 is funded, and only 31 percent of the Syrian Response Plan.
