UN appeals for $35bln to help worlds most vulnerable and fragile in 2021

GCC PHILANTHROPY

NEW YORK- A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year, a near 40 percent increase on 2020 which is "almost entirely from COVID-19", the UN’s emergency relief chief said on Tuesday.

In an appeal for $35 billion to meet humanitarian needs next year, Mark Lowcock said that the global health crisis had impacted dramatically people already reeling from conflict, record levels of displacement, climate change shocks. He said that "multiple" famines are looming.

The situation is "desperate" for millions and has left the UN and partners "overwhelmed," he added.

"The picture we are presenting is the bleakest and darkest perspective on humanitarian needs in the period ahead that we have ever set out. That is a reflection of the fact that the COVID pandemic has wreaked carnage across the whole of the most fragile and vulnerable countries on the planet." Echoing Mr. Lowcock’s call for global solidarity, UN Secretary-General Ant?nio Guterres urged the world to "stand with people in their darkest hour of need," as the global pandemic continues to worsen.

Although the humanitarian system had delivered "food, medicines, shelter, education and other essentials to tens of millions of people "the crisis is far from over," the UN chief insisted in a statement.

This year’s Global Humanitarian Overview, GHO, sets out plans "to reach 160 million of the most vulnerable people in 56 countries and most plans, if they are fully financed, will cost $35 billion," Mr. Lowcock said.

He noted that while richer countries had invested some $10 trillion in staving off economic disaster from the COVID-induced slump and could now see "light at the end of the tunnel the same is not true in the poorest countries." The COVID-19 crisis had plunged millions into poverty "and sent humanitarian needs skyrocketing," Mr. Lowcock explained, adding that aid funding was needed to "stave off famine, fight poverty, and keep children vaccinated and in school".

Cash will also be used from the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund, CERF, to tackle rising violence against women and girls linked to the pandemic, Mr. Lowcock said.