COVID-19 pandemic has pushed global aid needs to record $ 35 billion by 2021, UN says

Transportation Security Administration staff and travelers observe COVID-19 transmission prevention protocols at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the Queens Borough of New York. AP

Geneva: The UN said Tuesday that $ 35 billion would be needed for aid in 2021, as the pandemic leaves tens of millions more in crisis and at risk of multiple looming famines.

The global body’s annual Global Humanitarian Overview estimates that 235 million people around the world will need some form of emergency assistance next year, a staggering 40% over the past year.

“The increase is almost entirely due to COVID-19 “United Nations emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock told reporters.

Next year, one in 33 people in the world will need help, the report found, noting that if everyone lived in one country, it would be the fifth largest nation in the world.

The annual appeal from UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations usually presents a depressing picture of the growing needs caused by conflict, displacement, natural disasters and climate change.

But now, he warned, the coronavirus The pandemic, which has killed more than 1.45 million people worldwide, has disproportionately affected those who “already live on the edge of the knife”.

“The picture we are presenting is the darkest and darkest perspective on humanitarian needs in the coming period that we have ever established,” Lowcock said.

The money requested in the appeal would be enough to help 160 million of the most vulnerable people in 56 countries, the United Nations said.

‘The alarm bells are ringing’
For the first time since the 1990s, extreme poverty is set to increase, life expectancy will decrease and the annual death toll from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria could potentially double.

“Perhaps most alarming … is the threat of famines returning, potentially in multiple locations,” Lowcock said.

With only one true famine so far in the 21st century – in Somalia nearly a decade ago – mass starvation seemed to have been “assigned to the dustbin of history,” he said.

But now, he warned, “the red lights are flashing and alarm bells are ringing.”

By the end of 2020, the number of people with severe food insecurity around the world could increase to 270 million, an 82% increase over the previous period. COVID-19 number.

Conditions in Yemen, Burkina Faso, South Sudan and northeastern Nigeria indicated they are already on the brink of famine, while a number of other countries and regions, including Afghanistan and the Sahel, were also “potentially very vulnerable,” he said. said.

“If we get through 2021 without major famines, it will be a significant achievement.”

Tuesday’s appeal shows that war-torn Syria and Yemen top the list of countries most in need of humanitarian assistance.

The UN is seeking nearly $ 6 billion to help millions of Syrians inside and outside the country devastated by a decade of conflict.

And it is asking for nearly $ 3.5 billion to help nearly 20 million Yemenis involved in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

‘Darkest Hour’
Other major crises requiring substantial funding include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, raising the $ 35 billion needed at a time of global economic crisis could be a daunting task, more than double the $ 17 billion raised so far this year.

That amount is already a record, but it’s still far below the nearly $ 29 billion requested during last year’s appeal, even before the pandemic took its head.

“The crisis is far from over. Humanitarian aid budgets face severe shortcomings as the impact of the global pandemic continues to worsen,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“Together we must mobilize resources and be in solidarity with people in the darkest moment of need”.

Lowcock meanwhile insisted that while the total dollar amount required seemed high, it was actually small compared to the amounts rich countries are pumping to bail out their tank economies.

“At stake is the lives of large numbers of vulnerable people, and the cost of safeguarding their lives is actually very small in relation to all the other challenges we face.”