The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) fears that it will miss up to a quarter of its budget in 2023 and may have to make cuts in certain operations, its director general Robert Mardini told Swiss media . For lack of sufficient donations, 500 to 700 million Swiss francs (about as many euros) could be missing from the ICRC's budget of 2.79 billion planned for this year, Robert Mardini explained to the daily Le Temps. "If this is confirmed, we will no longer have the means to help the populations in the most difficult places to access, where our presence is the most important", he underlined.
“There are obviously fewer donations for humanitarian aid in general. This trend is now accentuated with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” he explained to public radio RTS, adding that “the communities affected by these crises find themselves forgotten by the international community which is not not up to the challenge".
Of the organization's 10 largest operations, which this year celebrates its 160th anniversary, only Ukraine has a positive funding outlook. All other operations (Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria) are underfunded, explains the humanitarian manager.
A phenomenon that is not specific to the ICRC but is also observed by the UN agencies involved in humanitarian action. In addition to Ukraine, which monopolizes significant funds from major donor countries, other factors explain the lack of funds: a certain fatigue with the conflicts that have lasted for years as illustrated by a recent appeal for funds for Yemen which has collected, for the time being, barely more than a quarter of what is estimated to be necessary. Galloping inflation also makes interventions much more expensive.
“The next few months will be decisive. We will have to, if the donors are not there, scale back our ambitions”, recognizes Mr. Mardini. This is one of the reasons why he launched his appeal at the beginning of the year to be able to gauge the response of donors. “And then, based on that response, we will do what we need to do to ensure a financial balance. »
