Gaza _ Palestine News Network
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said the organization was able to overcome the suffocating financing crisis caused by US President Donald Trump´s decision to stop funding.
UNRWA relied on a budget of 1.2 billion dollars (1 billion euros) for 2018 but faced a gap of 446 million dollars when the Trump administration announced it would cut support from the UN agency.
Commissioner Pierre Krähenbühl told reporters in Geneva: The agency responded to the "unprecedented" financial pressures it experienced by seeking support from UN member States, bringing the sum of 382 million dollars to this year´s deficit to only $64 million.
He hoped that the gap would be further reduced in the coming weeks.
"I do not think many people thought we would be able to exceed a deficit of 446 million dollars at the beginning of the year," said the official who took over the UNRWA presidency in 2014.
The EU and four Gulf countries in particular--Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates--have increased their support to compensate for the cut-off of U.S. funding, he said. Each of the four Gulf countries has raised their contributions to $50 million, he said.
The UN agency has not yet finalized its budget for 2019, but Krähenbühl stressed the importance of "maintaining these new funding levels."
In the past, the United States was the largest financial contributor to the agency.
But the Trump administration and Israel are opposed to the organization´s modus operandi.
