PRESS BRIEFING BY UNRWA COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNRWA COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

While donations had increased for the regular programmes of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), donations to its emergency programme had fallen off dramatically, according to Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of the Agency, who addressed correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Mr. Hansen had introduced his annual report to the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) of the General Assembly yesterday.  In the Committee, there was a lot of support for UNRWA activities in the region, he said.  But he warned that unless it was translated into financial backing, the agency would fall further behind in its efforts to lesson the pain of the effects of violence on the Palestinian refugees in the region.

While the appeals for the current year had sought the absolute minimum, he said, the Agency had only received a response to 45 per cent of those requests.  That meant that, with a 25 per cent malnutrition rate in Gaza and almost as much in the West Bank, the Agency had to cut back food distributions to half of what had been foreseen for the year.  With 12,700 people having lost shelter due to demolitions in Gaza alone, UNRWA had so far been able to replace only 228 homes.  In the area of health, it was only able to provide $750,000 in aid out of a projected $2.7 million in needs.

The poverty figures, he said, were frightening to look at.  Sixty per cent of the population was living below the poverty line.  At the same time, because of its financial situation, UNRWA had to reduce emergency employment by about half and cash subsidies had also seen drastic cutbacks.  He hoped that next year would see the Agency in much less dire straits regarding its ability to meet such basic needs.

Asked by a correspondent to put the response to UNRWA appeals in context, he said that UNRWA had had a better response to its appeals than other similar programmes.  In the emergency programme that began after the current intifada, it had at first obtained over 100 per cent, but now was down to 40 per cent.  Such donor fatigue was, unfortunately, not unusual.  There were other severe humanitarian crises around the world that were getting even less.

In response to questions about the effect of the war on terrorism on contributions to his agency, Mr. Hansen said that many organizations that had been associated with terrorism would be denied funds, but he could not tell whether it would affect UNRWA’s funding situation.

To a question about the impact of the security wall, he replied that it had already had devastating local effects.  He described towns that were isolated, and farmers that had been cut off from their harvests.  As a result, he said such towns were losing population and the total effect could be a further downward spiral in conditions in the West Bank. 

On relations with the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority, he said that, historically, UNRWA had maintained excellent relations with both, as well as with host countries in the region where the majority of Palestinian refugees in the area lived. 

Unfortunately, he said, the intifada, problems on the ground and ensuing UNRWA protests had a “wearing” effect on relations with the Israeli Government.  Nine staff members had been killed, many facilities had been requisitioned, and roadblocks had restricted access to other sites.  The Israeli Government might have thought that UNRWA had protested such developments too loudly, while others had felt that the agency was being too meek.  That’s what happened, he said, when one tried to seek a balance. 

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