The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) called Wednesday for an international mechanism to secure multi-year financial support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
This came on the eve of a donors’ conference held by UNRWA at the ministerial level on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.
Head of the Department of Refugee Affairs of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Ahmad Abu Holi, urged the donor countries to adopt a unified strategy to support UNRWA.
He stressed the need to find a mechanism to secure multi-year support that would achieve financial stability for the Agency’s budget and therefore ensure the sustainability of its services to Palestinian refugees.
Abu Holi noted that the donors’ conference should discuss allocating fixed contributions to UNRWA, whether from the UN or from other donors, in addition to voluntary contributions.
The Palestinian official then expressed his hope that the major donor countries will also allocate fixed contributions to support UNRWA’s regular budget for the coming years, adding that this budget is based on a work strategy for the years 2023-2028 and that it will be presented in its final form at the donors meeting.
Earlier, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, called for raising the financial contribution allocated by the UN to UNRWA. He said this support should be capable to cover any expected financial deficit in its budget in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Abu Holi stressed that the conference is particularly important as it will be held at the level of foreign ministers of donor countries and member states of the UN, with the participation of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
“Such attendance gives great and strong political support to UNRWA,” he said.
