UNRWA's donor countries increase financial contributions
Regional-Palestine, Economics, 4/30/1999

The donating countries for UNRWA has announced at the conclusion of its meeting held on Thursday in Amman an increase in their financial contributions to the organization.

The organization's commissioner general, Peter Hansen, told reporters in a press conference that UNRWA, which provides services to some 3.5 million Palestinian refugees, is still in a difficult financial condition despite the tough measures it has taken.

The US ambassador in Jordan, William Burns, said his country announced additional aid at a value of US $4 million, therefore US overall contribution to UNRWA reached US $77 million. However, UNRWA's budget for 1999 is estimated at US $322 million at an accumulated discrepancy of US 60 million.

Hansen added that the "discrepancy for 1999 is estimated at US $8 million," but this discrepancy was reduced to US $4 million after the extra US aid was announced. Hansen added that other donor countries have asserted increases in their contributions. He explained that Canada's contributions to UNRWA will increase by 40% for this year in comparison to its contributions for 1998.

He continued that Britain's aid to UNRWA will be in 1999 some US $11 million, whereas France has approved extra aid worth US $170,000. He continued that Japan has announced aid estimated at US $6.7 million for UNRWA's food program, while Australia has announced that it will pay some US $8 million to UNRWA out of a total aids of US $16 million to be offered to the Palestinians over a three-year period.

Previous Stories:
  Palestinian refugee host countries meet in Amman   (4/28/1999)
  Amman hosts UNRWA coordination meeting   (4/22/1999)
  Some 3,500 Iraqi, Sudanese refugees in Lebanon   (2/18/1999)

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