UNRWA calls for providing a sustainable funding model to ensure support for Palestinian refugees

GENEVA – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) appealed today for US$ 1.6 billion for programmes and operations in 2023.   

“Across all the area of operations, UNRWA continues to play an indispensable role in the lives of millions of Palestine refugees. We work to maintain the delivery of basic services in an incredibly difficult financial and political context,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini. “Palestine refugees – one of the most underprivileged communities in the region- face unprecedented challenges and increasingly rely on UNRWA for basic services and in some cases the sheer survival.”

Compounding challenges over the last year including underfunding, competing global crises, inflation, disruption in the supply chain, geopolitical dynamics and skyrocketing levels of poverty and unemployment among Palestine refugees have put immense strain on UNRWA. Most Palestine refugees now live below the poverty line, many depend on humanitarian assistance, including cash and food, from UNRWA.

On the seventeenth of this month, UNRWA announced the transfer of a large amount of its expenditures to the new fiscal year, warning of a severe shortage in funding for its activities. Mahmoud Khalaf, Coordinator of the Joint Committee for Palestinian Refugees stated that the current year is the most difficult in terms of the financial crisis facing UNRWA, as the agency left last year with a financial deficit of $80 million, which is the largest in decades.

Source: UNRWA

Nada Haj Khidr