UNRWA Head: Underfunding Agency Will Lead to Its Collapse

By Staff, Agencies

Chronic underfunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that services 5.6 million Palestinian refugees will lead to its collapse, warned UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini.

"We need US $817 million. The full US $817 million," Lazzarini said as he asked the donor conference at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday afternoon to help his organization fund its $1.6 billion budget for 2022.

Failure to do so, he said would lead to a "disruption of services."

The organization formed by the UN in 1949, helps Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The UN is set to renew its mandate this fall, as does every three years.

It's not enough to renew the mandate, Lazzarini said, UN nations must also provide the funds to execute it. Eventually, he said, failure to do so would "push the Agency towards financial collapse."

"For years, we managed the chronic underfunding through internal measures such as cost control, austerity and zero-growth budgets," Lazzarini said.

"Today, we have depleted our financial reserves and reached the limits of cost control and austerity measures," he explained, adding that, "austerity now affects the quality of the services."

"We are not in a position anymore to adopt austerity and cost control measures of the size of the funding gap," he said.

funding failure now would put at risk the education of half-a-million girls and boys as well as the primary health care for close to 2 million people, Lazzarini explained.

"To illustrate austerity, think of 50 children in one classroom, double shifts within schools, or a medical visit where a doctor spends less than 3 minutes with a patient," Lazzarini said.

The pace of donations, he said, cannot keep up with the needs of a growing population.

UNRWA has long been in financial distress, but the situation has become more acute in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"The situation in Ukraine has exacerbated the noticeable increase in food and commodity prices, seriously affecting the household economy of Palestine refugees," Lazzarini said.

Poverty rates have reached 80% in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza with "too many Palestine refugees report living with one meal a day," Lazzarini said.

"I have appealed to all donors to ensure that Palestine refugees are not a collateral of the events in Ukraine," he said.