Finland is allocating the bulk of its humanitarian assistance to countries in Africa, specifically Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and those in the Sahel.
On Friday (March 2), the country’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs granted a total of €67.6 million ($89.2 million) in humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of people in crisis situations around the world. This is slightly lower than last year’s humanitarian aid budget of €78 million.
The European donor is setting aside €20.1 million for Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. It will also provide €8.4 million to the Sahel in response to mounting fears of a developing food crisis in the region.
Finland will be providing €5 million to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the surrounding central African region and the Great Lakes area. Outside of Africa, Finland will be providing assistance to Haiti, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan. The Palestinian territories, meanwhile, will receive aid worth €3.5 million.
The assistance will be channeled through several U.N. agencies, mainly the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. World Food Program. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund will receive funding amounting to €6.5 million. The International Red Cross — through the Finnish Red Cross — will receive support worth €11.4 million. Other Finnish organizations, such as the Finn Church Aid and Fida International, will be granted €3.8 million.
Read more:
Find Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs projects & tenders. Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.
