Throughout 2020, UNRWA issued weekly emergency appeals, claiming that they have no resources – again?
Yet on March 15, 2020, UNRWA posted on its site that 47 nations had pledged close to one billion dollars to UNRWA this year.
The Bedein Center’s staff sent a query to all 47 nations to ascertain if any of these countries had not sent their donations to UNRWA.
Every donor nation affirmed that they sent their promised donation to UNRWA.
So why is there a UNRWA financial and humanitarian crisis?
This situation is similar to events that occurred two years ago. On June 20, 2018, UNRWA declared it was out of money. In 2018, then as now, our staff contacted all 47 donor nations, who all confirmed they had indeed donated $1.2 billion to UNRWA, with no delay in relaying the funds.
When given the responsibility to administer 59 refugee camps, running out of funds once is worrying, but twice cannot be a coincidence
On 5 separate occasions, the Bedein Center brought these concerns to the staff of the UN Secretary General, who made it clear that the UNRWA donor nations must deal with all claims of UNRWA policy indiscretions.
In that context, The Bedein Center will again meet with the staff of the UN secretary general to report that, once again, one billion dollars of donations to UNRWA cannot be accounted for.
Where is the call for UNRWA accountability from UNRWA donor nations?