For her part, the Swedish Foreign Minister hailed the agency’s efforts under such difficult circumstances, underscoring that today’s conference is an opportunity to renew solidarity with Palestinian refugees and UNRWA’s international mandate and crucial role.
She also underlined the need to continue supporting the UNRWA until the refugee issue is resolved, pointing out the importance of matching the agency’s political support with financial support to enable it to carry out the minimum requirements of its operations in its areas of work. Additionally, Linde highlighted the need to provide a sustainable and stable budget for the agency.
Meanwhile, the UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini thanked both Safadi and Linde for organizing this conference, stressing that the UNRWA’s vision rests on the commitment to leave no Palestinian refugee behind. “It [UNRWA’s vision] is about ensuring that UNRWA services accompany all refugees on their transformative journey towards self-reliance,” he added.
“Financial and political threats of a truly existential nature are working against this vision. If these threats are not addressed decisively, they will create a vacuum and a human disaster that this region simply cannot afford,” Lazzarini noted.
He called for supporting the UNRWA with $100 million to bring the agency and personnel back to their full capacity.
According to the Commissioner-General, countries participating in the conference have pledged around $38 million.
This conference is the third in a series of conferences held under a Jordanian-Swedish joint organization following the Rome conference in 2018, aiming to mobilize the necessary international political and financial support for the agency and reduce the financial deficit it faced. The efforts plugged the unprecedented financial deficit, after a total of $122 million were pledged for this purpose.
In June of 2020, the International Ministerial Conference on UNRWA brought together more than fifty countries and representatives of international and regional organizations. During the conference, a total of $130 million were pledged to enable the agency to provide its vital services to Palestinian refugees in its five areas of operation in accordance with its UN mandate.
Source: Jordan News Agency