Humanitarian funding needs fixing.
The number of man-made and natural disasters is increasing year-on-year, with the number of people in need growing 75 percent from more than 45 million in 2004 to 78.9 million today. And in its latest Global Humanitarian Overview Status Report, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs revealed humanitarian funding requirements for 2015 have risen to a record $18.8 billion. So far, only 26 percent has been met, leaving a $14 billion shortfall.
Last month, the U.N. appointed a High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, jointly chaired by European Commission Vice President and former EU humanitarian aid chief Kristalina Georgieva and Sultan Nazrin Shah of Malaysia, to look at solving the funding issue. Humanitarian funding has also taken center stage at the U.N. Economic and Social Council meeting, known as ECOSOC, which will be held June 17-19 in Geneva, Switzerland.