Ahmed Atef (Cairo)
Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), appreciated the efforts and contributions of the United Arab Emirates, over the past decades, in supporting the agency and its budget, stressing that the state saved UNRWA from bankruptcy twice, in 2018 and 2019.
Abu Hasna added that the UAE provided great assistance to various health and educational programs and built thousands of homes, and provided more than half a billion dollars through direct aid or the Red Crescent and other humanitarian institutions in the country.
At the beginning of this month, the UAE announced its contribution of $20 million (73.6 million dirhams) to support the agency, in order to provide education, health care, and social services to Palestinian refugees, as the agency is funded almost entirely by contributions from member states of the United Nations. United.
Her Excellency Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative of the State to the United Nations, announced the UAE’s contribution, which will be disbursed over the next two years.
Her Excellency said, during the meeting of the ad hoc committee of the General Assembly to announce voluntary donations to the Agency: “(UNRWA) is facing serious challenges, as its financial situation is unstable, and its future is in the balance, so the support of the UAE came with the aim of contributing to financing that enhances the aspirations and sustainability of the Agency. ». She added, “(UNRWA) plays a pivotal role in improving the lives of millions of Palestinian refugees, and also contributes to maintaining regional security and stability.”
For his part, Adnan Abu Hasna enumerated the contributions of the UAE to support the Palestinian people, pointing out that it has rebuilt the Jenin camp, which was destroyed in 2000, and the Emirati neighborhood in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, to house hundreds of families who lost their homes, in addition to building dozens of schools and clinics, and adopting Schools in the Gaza Strip, and bear the salaries of teachers, stationery and school uniforms.
A spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees stated that UNRWA ended 2022 with a financial deficit of $75 million, which was carried forward to the current year 2023, and what the agency currently obtained from the program budget of $847 million is only 57 percent, which threatens the provision of services from The beginning of September until next December, and what it has enough funding only until the end of August.
He said that the financial deficit of UNRWA is complex and has multiple reasons, the most important of which is the stability of the budget for ten years, despite the increasing number of refugees and their requirements, in addition to the Ukrainian crisis and the donors’ focus on Ukraine, and some important donor countries have been informed of the reduction of their aid this year and the coming years.
The effects of the financial deficit appeared with the increase in the number of students and spending on health in the Agency’s clinics in the areas of operations, in addition to the crisis of high unemployment rates among the Palestinian refugees and their dependence mainly on “UNRWA” as a lifeline. In Gaza, for example, the number of those receiving regular foodstuffs reached about 1.2 million refugees. A Palestinian receives hundreds of thousands of cash aid in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Adnan revealed that UNRWA is moving at different levels to find new donors, increase financial pledges and the United Nations’ contribution to the budget, go to the private sector and zakat institutions, update and digitize programs in line with the changes in the world, and search for strategic partnerships.
He explained that the various UNRWA sectors and programs will be affected and even threatened with stopping if the necessary funding is not provided to continue the services, pointing out that they are trying hard to push donors to advance the date of their donations and obtain a loan from the United Nations and persuade donors to increase their donations, after some reliable donors have reached their intention. Reducing aid for this year and the coming years.
The UAE provided aid to Palestine between 2018 and 2023, at a value of $521 million, of which $119.3 million was through UNRWA.
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