The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday appealed to the international community to contribute just one per cent of global arms spending annually.
The committee said it was downsizing its annual aid appeal; seeking $23 billion for 2026 to achieve important goals. The appeal came after the aid and development budget took a major hit following the US's decision to cut funds, despite constant attacks on its workers in conflicts.
The amount of money will be enough to save 87 million lives, UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher said.
“It’s us who are driving the ambulance towards the fire on your behalf, but now we're being asked to put out the fire without resources, which we lack.” He said.
Just last year, the aid agency sought $ 47 billion but received little over $ 12 billion, nearly 75 per cent of the reduction in funds, the largest in the last decade,” he added.
While it has asked $23 billion, the agency hopes to raise to $33 billion to help 135 million people in 2026; however, there is a real possibility that it might never get that much funding since countries have now started to focus on more defence budgets rather than development.
A major cause of the reduction in funding is the extremist politicians who are misleading people into thinking that their taxes largely fund aid.
"I know budgets are tight right now, families everywhere are under strain, but the world spent $2.7 trillion on defence last year, on guns and arms. I'm asking for just over 1 per cent of that," he added.
The money would now be spent in the nations and places hardest hit by wars, climate disasters, earthquakes, epidemics, and crop failures,” Fletcher said.
The countries with the most urgent of aid are Palestine, requiring $4.1 billion for 3 million people, $2.9 billion for 20 million people in Sudan, $2.8 billion for 8.6 million people in Syria. While the war in Ukraine, Haiti and Myanmar were also high on the list.
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