Who Rescues the Rescuers: UN Humanitarian Agencies in Crisis

... caring for the refugees remain severely underfunded and on the brink of bankruptcy. With more and more people displaced on a daily basis with every year, the budget of UNCHR only continues to shrink. Antònio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, has recently said that his agency’s income in 2015 would be 10% less than in 2014. Even though member states pay the UN its regular budget, agencies like UNHCR or UNICEF have to survive on voluntary donations that are often tied to particular projects and cannot be spent on projects and crises as they inevitably arise. The statistics of the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) ...