UN launches $7 billion appeal for humanitarian work next year

United Nations, New York, 30 November 2009 - The United Nations is calling for $7.1 billion to provide urgent humanitarian aid to 48 million people in 25 countries worldwide in 2010.
The 2010 Humanitarian Appeal is the biggest Appeal ever launched since the creation of the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) in 1991, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In the foreword to the Appeal, the Secretary-General says that the aim is to help people survive the coming year, and start working their way out of vulnerability towards the dignity, safety and self-sufficiency to which every human being has a right.

The 2010 Appeal comprises twelve consolidated appeals, for Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, the West Africa region, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

Launching the Appeal earlier in Geneva, John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that humanitarian aid should be insulated from the current budget pressures faced by many governments. If not, the people desperately affected by the severest natural disasters and conflicts will pay the price for a recession not of their making, he added. Holmes also noted that the amount of humanitarian funding requested for 2010 was far less than one percent of the amount spent on financial bailouts and economic stimulus.

News story:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33095&Cr=ocha&Cr1=appeal

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