UN WFP still in crisis, despite budgetary, aid cuts
ALBAWABA – The United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP) is severely underfunded, having announced multiple UN WFP aid cuts for Jordan, Syria and Haiti since June, with possibly more cuts in pipeline by the end of the year.
On Wednesday the UN WFP announced it would be cutting aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan, citing funding shortfall, news agencies reported.
Similar cuts in Jordan and Syria were also announced earlier in July and in June.
The agency also announced similar cut to Haiti earlier this week, for similar reason, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), as funding dwindles for the UN WFP.
Overall, estimates of people in need of humanitarian assistance worldwide have increased 30 percent since early 2022, a UN statement highlighted, citing 360 million people in need of aid in 2023.
Halfway through the year, the Global Humanitarian Appeal is only 20 percent funded.
UN WFP aid cuts: First of many
Several UN agencies are facing funding crises, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
UNHCR budget gap
UNHCR’s final 2022 budget was $10.714 billion, of which only $6.180 billion were available, leaving an overall funding gap of 42 percent, according to the 2022 final budget report.
The UNHCR assists an overall number of nearly 112.6 million people around the world, including millions of Syrians in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.
UNRWA funding crisis
Likewise, UNRWA has received less than 25 percent, or $364 million, of the $1.6 billion funding requirement for 2023, The Jordan Times reported in May.
Some 5.9 million Palestine refugees are registered with UNRWA who are eligible for the agency’s services. With UNRWA having incurred a $75 million debt in 2023, carried over from 2022, according to an official statement.
Nonetheless, there are other UN agencies facing more current and immediate funding threats, which would affect livelihoods and food security at an intercontinental level. Chief among which is the UN World Food Program.
UN WFP shortfall in funding
The UN WFP is running sweeping aid cuts to cope with an ongoing funding crisis. But it “still faces a critical funding shortfall of $41 million until the end of 2023” despite the cuts.
Agency representative in Jordan Alberto Correia Mendes warned of “increased negative coping strategies” among refugees who depend on the WFP’s assistance. Such coping mechanisms may include forced child labor, child marriage and debt accumulation as a result of aid cuts.
“We are deeply concerned about the potential deterioration of families’ food security, but as funding dries up, our hands are tied,” he was quoted saying in the statement.
As a result of the funding shortfall, the World Food Programme will be reducing cash assistance to nearly 120,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, according to a statement carried by France 24.
The statement said the aid cuts were “unavoidable as funds run precariously low.”
In Jordan, the UN has around 650,000 registered Syrian refugees who fled Syria since war broke out there in 2011. But official government estimates place the number at nearly double the UN’s, citing some 1.3 million Syrians in the country.
UN WFP aid cuts in Jordan
First, earlier in July, the World Food Program announced it has reduced monthly aid to vulnerable Syrian families living outside of camps by one-third, The Jordan Times reported.
But aid cuts were not exclusive to Syrians residing outside the camps.
On Wednesday, another World Food Program statement came out, saying it was “compelled to reduce by one-third the monthly cash assistance for all 119,000 Syrian refugees in Zaatari and Azraq camps.”
As of August, Syrian refugees in the two camps will receive “a reduced cash allowance of $21 per month per person,” down from $32, the statement explained.
UN WFP aid cuts in Syria
In an official statement back in June, the World Food Program announced it would reduce its cut assistance to 2.5 million of the 5.5 million people who rely on the agency for their basic food needs.
The WFP took the decision to stretch the extremely limited resources by prioritizing 3 million Syrians who are unable to make it from one week to the next without food assistance. Rather than to continue assistance to 5.5 million people and run out of food completely by October, the statement said.
“Instead of scaling up or even keeping pace with increasing needs, we’re facing the bleak scenario of taking assistance away from people, right when they need it the most,” says WFP Representative and Country Director in Syria Kenn Crossley.
“Syrian refugees living in both camps have limited income sources with only 30 percent of adults working -– mainly in temporary or seasonal jobs -– while 57 percent of camp residents say cash assistance is their only source of income,” the WFP said.
UN WFP aid cuts in Haiti
In Haiti, some 100,000 people will go without aid this month, a senior agency official told AFP.
Six months into 2023, the WFP’s response plan in Haiti was only 16 percent funded, the UN agency said in a statement, carried by AFP. Amounting in total to a 25 percent reduction in aid, compared to June.
"These cuts could not come at a worse time, as Haitians face a multi-layered humanitarian crisis,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP country director for the Caribbean nation.
“their lives and livelihoods upended by violence, insecurity, economic turmoil and climate shocks," he said. Adding that "unless we [the WFP] receive immediate funding, further devastating cuts cannot be ruled out."
Since the beginning of the year, the WFP provided food or cash aid to some 1.5 million people, including school lunches for 450,000 children.
"Without an injection of funds, nearly half of these children will no longer have access to school meals when they return to class after the summer break," the agency said.
The WFP estimates it requires $121 million through the end of the year in Haiti.
Overall, nearly 5.2 million Haitians are in need of some humanitarian assistance, according to the UN, including 3 million children.
Haiti’s population is estimated at 11.45 million people.
Humanitarian appeal for UN WFP, UNHCR and other entities
In December 2022, the UN launched the humanitarian appeal for 2023, setting another record for humanitarian relief requirements, with 339 million people in need of assistance in 69 countries.
The estimated cost of the humanitarian response going into 2023 is US$51.5 billion, a 25 percent increase compared to the beginning of 2022, Relief Web reported.
“Humanitarian needs are shockingly high, as this year’s extreme events are spilling into 2023,” said the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths.
Meanwhile, donors had only provided some $24 billion by then, a little less than 50 percent. But nearly eight months into 2023, UN budgetary requirements have since increased.
Meanwhile, aid cuts keep coming in, reaffirming fears that the lion’s share of this year’s humanitarian appeal will likely go underfunded, to say the least.
