2023-09-12 04:13:41
The budget of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be reduced by about 13 percent next year, says director Robert Mardini. This is because major donors such as the United States have reduced funding.
The ICRC is part of the Red Cross movement and is separate from, for example, the Dutch Red Cross.
“Countries worldwide have less money available for humanitarian aid,” Mardini told the news agency on Monday Archyde.com. “Unfortunately, the shrinking of aid budgets is happening at a time when the need for aid in many countries is greater than ever.” The director of the ICRC is referring to wars in Ukraine and Sudan.
The original budget would be 2.4 billion Swiss Francs (2.51 billion euros). That budget is already lower than in previous years and that would mean that the organization had to cut quite a few costs.
But now that countries such as the United States are pledging less and less money for next year, the budget for 2024 will be ‘only’ 2.1 billion Swiss Francs.
This means that at least 270 jobs will be cut at the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva. In May, the Red Cross announced the loss of more than fifteen hundred jobs.
The Red Cross is funded by voluntary contributions from governments, organizations such as the European Commission and other public and private donors. According to Mardini, the United States was the organization’s largest donor, but the country had already significantly reduced its contribution for 2023 compared to previous years. It is not known how much money is involved.
“We need to rethink the humanitarian aid system,” says Mardini. “The entire system is dependent on a handful of countries and donors. I think this is by definition a big risk.”
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