UN Seeks $51.5b To Help World’s Vulnerable Population

The United Nations has announced that it will need 51.5 billion dollars to help 230 million of the world’s most vulnerable people in nearly 70 countries, including Nigeria in 2023.

UN and partner organisations disclosed that the size of the appeal – 25 per cent higher than this year’s – reflects the fact that the total number in need is 65 million more than in 2022.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in a video message, said that during a “year of extremes”, it was essential to fund lifesaving operations next year, which were a “source of hope for millions of people in desperate need.”

Guterres spoke on Thursday in Geneva at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview report, 2023.

Similarly, UN’s top emergency relief official, Martin Griffiths said the needs were “shockingly high”, warning that it was very likely that this year’s emergencies would continue into 2023.

“The needs are going up because we’ve been smitten by the war in Ukraine, by COVID-19, by climate,” he said.

“I fear that 2023 is going to be an acceleration of all those trends, and that’s why we say … that we hope 2023 will be a year of solidarity, just as 2022 has been a year of suffering.”

Griffiths described the appeal as a “lifeline” for people on the brink.

He explained that numerous countries had been hit by lethal droughts and floods, from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa. In addition, the war in Ukraine had “turned a part of Europe into a battlefield.

According to him, more than 100 million people are now displaced worldwide. And all of this on top of the devastation left by the pandemic among the world’s poorest.

“If the humanitarian outlook for 2023 is so grim, it is in large part because relief demands are already so high.

At least 222 million people … will face acute food insecurity in 53 countries by the end of this year.

Turning to the threat of famine, he said that five countries “are already experiencing what we call famine-like conditions, where we can confidently and unhappily say that people are dying as a result – and it tends to be children – of displacement, food insecurity, lack of food, starvation.”

In 2023, 45 million people in 37 countries risk starvation, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview.

It highlighted that vulnerable communities also face pressure on several fronts including health, as medical providers continue to struggle to recover after COVID-19, and while the mpox (Monkeypox) and other vector-borne diseases continue, along with outbreaks of Ebola and cholera.