On December 4, Mark Lowcock, United Nations (U.N.) Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, presented the list of priority needs requiring funding, in Geneva, Switzerland.
In Venezuela, where there’s a financial requirement to reach $1.35 billion for 3.8 million people in 2020, needs are higher than the allocated resources, the U.N. official said.
According to Lowcock, a “substantial increase in humanitarian assistance for Venezuelans is needed, for those who remain in their country, and about twice as much aid for those who’ve left the country,” the official said.
In Venezuela, the economic crisis has led to income reduction for many families, forcing millions of them to migrate to other countries in the world, but Colombia has received the highest number of Venezuelans so far.
According to official figures from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the aid plan for Venezuela was the most difficult to fund in 2019. At the moment, only 25 percent of requested funds have been obtained, the U.N. body said.
In October, the International Solidarity Conference on the Venezuelan Refugee and Migrant Crisis was held in Brussels, Belgium, where it was announced that the European Union (EU) had collected an additional $150 million to confront the Venezuelan migration crisis.
At this event, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that “the main goal wasn’t fundraising,” but to bring to light the serious migratory situation that Latin America is experiencing because of the Venezuelan situation.
Besides Venezuela, Yemen, South Sudan, and Syria are among the nations that need humanitarian assistance. Consequently, $29 billion will be requested from the international community.
One in every 45 people on the planet needs food, shelter, medical care, protection, or other basic assistance to survive, according to OCHA’s Global Humanitarian Overview. Conflicts, extreme weather events, and epidemics are the main causes behind the record figure of 168 million individuals in emergency situations.