Finland grants €70m humanitarian aid to Asia, Africa

Finland has granted 68.35 million euros to United Nations' humanitarian organisations, International Committee of the Red Cross, and Finnish civil society organisations, said the government in a press release.

Of this sum, EUR 35.5 million is core funding. Four million euros will be channelled to Yemen, which is suffering from the worst humanitarian crisis of world with over 80 per cent of the population in need of assistance.

Regionally the most important targets are the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and Africa, which are granted 29.5 million euros in all. Half of this will be channelled to the Middle East and the other half will be targeted to Africa. In addition, Finland supports Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ukraine by a total of 3.2 million euros.

In Yemen, 24 million people, representing over 80% of the population of the country, are in need of assistance. Finland will announce its EUR four million support for Yemen at the UN Pledging Event in Geneva on 26 February. This is one million more than last year. The assistance will be channelled via the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Save the Children.

"Finland shoulders its responsibility for alleviating the distress and humanitarian assistance is the most reliable and effective means to do that. We want to help and develop humanitarian organisations' work by granting them core funding. Our partners are present in all major crises," Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen said.

In this decade, the need of humanitarian assistance has grown considerably worldwide. Most assistance work is related to protracted crises. This year's total requirement is approximately 20 billion euros for about 130 million people in 42 countries. Finland complements its country-specific support by means of multiannual core funding for humanitarian organisations to help them plan and implement their activities more effectively.