UAE to host UN global aid appeal

The UAE will host the United Nations' annual global donations appeal next month, it was announced yesterday.

The Consolidated Appeal Process is a joint effort by international aid organisations, including several UN agencies, to push for assistance to meet the world's major humanitarian challenges in a strategic and effective way.

Expected to be the largest appeal for aid in decades, the 2012 event will seek to raise more than US$7.7 billion (Dh28.28bn) to assist 51 million people in 16 countries affected by conflict, poverty, disease and natural disasters. This is the second time the UAE will host the announcement: in November 2009, a UN call to raise $7bn for 30 million people in 31 countries was made here. It was the first time in several years the event was launched in a city other than Geneva or New York.

Next month's event follows a similar call by Valerie Amos, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, in Geneva earlier this week.

"The UAE will be hosting a launch parallel to the one in Geneva this year," said Abeer Etefam, a spokesman and senior regional public information officer for the World Food Programme. She said she hoped the event would encourage regional governments to commit to assisting and also increase awareness of pressing needs.