The United Nations on Tuesday revealed a record $4.8-billion funding gap for its 2009 aid projects as a result of strained foreign assistance, widespread economic trouble and a ten-fold increase in needs in Pakistan.
“This recession is driving up humanitarian needs,” UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator John Holmes told a news briefing in Geneva, where he held meetings with donor nations who will soon set their 2010 aid budgets.
A financing report prepared for those sessions stressed that the United Nations has received less than half the $9.5-billion it sought for humanitarian work this year. Yet some 43 million people need assistance this year, up from 28 million in 2008.
UN reports record humanitarian aid shortfall
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