Daily News Analysis
UN projects soaring humanitarian needs in world in 2022
The United Nations is predicting that a record 274 million people – who together would amount to the world’s fourth most-populous country – will require emergency humanitarian aid next year in countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria and Yemen which face a raft of challenges including war, insecurity, hunger, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
Key Highlights
- The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in its annual overview of future needs, is projecting a 17% jump in the number of people who will need urgent assistance in 2022, and is appealing to donors to provide a record $41 billion to help 183 million people who are the most in need.
- The appeal pulls together needs from an array of U.N. agencies and their partners, and is likely to fall short of its ambitions. This year, donors provided over $17 billion for projects in last year’s Global Humanitarian Overview from OCHA, but funding has been less than half of the U.N. request for 2021.
- The overview lays out country-specific plans for 30 countries, half of them in Africa, and most of the rest in the Middle East or Latin America.
- OCHA says more than 24 million people require life-saving assistance in Afghanistan, driven by conflict, political turmoil, the coronavirus, economic shocks and the worst drought in more than a generation.
SOURCE: The Indian Express