International Shia News Agency

Red Cross requested $1.68-billion budget for 2015

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has requested a $1.68-billion budget from donors for the year 2015 in order to meet the needs of people in the crisis-hit areas across the world.

The figure is the largest ever requested by the ICRC and shows a 25-percent rise in comparison to the amount the organization requested in 2014.

“This record budget is required to meet the needs and fit our response to the changing nature of armed conflict,” said ICRC President Peter Maurer at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday.

“We are witnessing new kinds of crises, in new combinations, often with a regional dimension. We are no longer simply facing traditional internal or international armed conflict. Gaining access and proximity to ever greater numbers of people in need while coping with increasingly severe security constraints is a fundamental challenge for us,” he added.

Maurer said that one of the organization’s priorities in the years ahead will be to focus more on health necessities.

“Another will be to consolidate and reinforce our organization’s approach to addressing the humanitarian needs of detainees, internally displaced people, refugees and vulnerable migrants,” he said.

Maurer referred to addressing sexual violence in places such as the Central African Republic, Central America, Colombia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the third priority of the organization.

“An overriding challenge now is to find and pursue more innovative ways of responding to needs that will enable us to bring aid more effectively and rapidly to those who require it, and to take into account their own views on what they need,” he added.

The ICRC president ranked the countries that are in need of ICRC help, saying that Syria remains the main target of the organization. He further named South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Congo, Palestine, Mali, the Central African Republic and Ukraine as the other countries in need of the ICRC response.

 

Source:PressTV

www.shafaqna.com

 

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