jordan pulse -
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned, on Friday, of the failure to raise the necessary funds for the agency, and the enormous humanitarian, political and security implications for the region and beyond.
"I don't have the funds to keep our schools, health centers and other services running as of September," Lazzarini said at a donors' conference in New York.
He added, "I fully realize that you are tired of hearing year after year about the financial crisis of UNRWA, and many of you believe in some way that we can continue to manage and get out of the crisis, and the Palestinian refugee communities believe that too, but the crisis is real."
Lazzarini believed that the greatest existential threat to the Agency now is to continue to deny the severity of the crisis that is besieging UNRWA now and to believe that the status quo is still effective, and this will inevitably lead to the internal collapse of UNRWA.
"Closing the funding gap today is nothing for the international community compared to what it would cost if the agency collapsed in the coming months," he said.
Lazzarini explained that the agency's educational program is not qualified to respond effectively to learning losses caused by the Corona pandemic due to lack of investment, and the excellent health system, which has reached the standards of universal vaccination, has begun to fall below WHO standards in some areas.
The Commissioner believed that in light of the current political environment, the UNRWA model of providing services similar to public services based on voluntary funding is no longer effective, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is no longer a top priority due to geopolitical changes and transformations in both the region and the world, and the emergence of new humanitarian crises as well. It is in Ukraine.
In New York, Friday, a donors' conference began for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which "has exhausted its ability to absorb funding shortfalls over a decade of austerity."
The President of the United Nations General Assembly will preside over the conference, which will be attended by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in an attempt to mobilize the necessary resources for UNRWA for the last quarter of this year.
The UN agency expects a severe financial deficit to secure the provision of basic services and necessary and urgent humanitarian aid, starting next September.