The United Nations agency has received only $1.57 billion of the $21.1 billion required to sustain its operations this year, with donations slashed by 40 per cent after cuts from major donors like the United States. “WFP is prioritizing countries with the greatest needs and stretching food rations at the...
“We will see a …real surge in this disease – [we] will see it come back, and we see people dying the way we saw them in the 90s and in 2000s,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima who noted a “tenfold increase” from the 600,000 AIDS-related deaths recorded globally...
Spokespersons for UNICEF and UNHCR in Geneva warned that the liquidity crunch has jeopardized lifesaving work, including progress in reducing child mortality, which has fallen by 60 per cent since 1990. By slashing severe acute malnutrition by one-third since 2000, UNICEF’s efforts have kept 55 million children alive, through simple...
In a video message to the conference Standing with Syria: Meeting the Needs for a Successful Transition, organized by the European Union in Brussels, he underlined the gravity of the situation. “This is a watershed moment,” said the UN chief, stressing that the future of Syria depends on ensuring access...
Citing reports from humanitarians in the Strip, he said it was becoming more difficult to access “decent and sufficient food, water, medical services and other vital items”. Briefing reporters in New York, Mr. Dujarric said restoring the overall healthcare system was progressing, but progress is proving slow. In the devastated...
“Children in the world’s largest refugee camp are experiencing the worst levels of malnutrition since the massive displacement that occurred in 2017,” Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, told journalists in Geneva, almost eight years since hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya fled widespread military attacks in Myanmar. Speaking from...
The crisis is being exacerbated by the expected early arrival of the lean season – the period between harvests when hunger peaks. Chronic hunger is being driven by conflict, displacement, economic instability and severe climate shocks, WFP said, with devastating floods in 2024 affecting over six million people across West...
In a media briefing on Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the consequences of funding suspensions, including disruptions to HIV treatment, setbacks in polio eradication and limited resources for responding to mpox epidemics in Africa. “The suspension of funding to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, caused...
The waiver allows the continuation or resumption of “life-saving humanitarian assistance” including HIV treatment. That means 20 million people living with HIV and whose medication is funded by the US can continue to receive treatment. “That’s 20 million out of the 30 million people living with HIV in the world,” said...
The development follows the pause announced to billions of dollars of funding on 24 January by the US administration affecting “nearly all US foreign aid programmes, pending a 90-day review”, said Pio Smith from the UN’s sexual reproductive health agency, UNFPA, briefing journalists in Geneva. ‘Unwavering commitment’ to serve people...
The move from the UN agency dedicated to ending the disease came in response to an immediate 90-day funding pause for all foreign assistance laid out in an executive order by President Trump, including the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR is the world’s leading HIV initiative...
The package includes $1.143 billion from donor governments along with a commitment of $355 million from UNHCR’s private sector National partners. This provides the agency with 15 percent of its anticipated needs for the coming year. “We live in a world ravaged by brutal and seemingly endless conflicts that tear...