An additional US$614 million was pledged at the Humanitarian Conference on South Sudan that took place this week in Oslo. This sees the international community 34% short of its target,(1) compared with 67% before the conference. Only half of the 41 countries attending pledged new money at the conference.
Oslo saw US$543 million in additional funding pledges from 22 donors for the crisis in South Sudan – with a further US$71 million pledged for the regional response. This closes the gap between funds received and the appeal target, but leaves considerable needs unmet.
The UN now estimates funding requirements to be US$1.8 billion in 2014. Prior to Oslo, US$702 million in humanitarian assistance had been committed, with 84% of this within the UN South Sudan Crisis Response Plan 2014.
The US, the UK and the EU have been the three largest donors to the South Sudan crisis, collectively contributing 59% of the total before Oslo. All three made significant additional pledges at Oslo with the UK and US contributions almost doubling. As conference hosts, Norway also increased its commitment considerably – although some of the funding is likely to go to the regional response (2) – making the largest proportional increase in funding among the top ten donors of 344%.
New donor countries in 2014 include Qatar (US$10 million), Egypt (US$2 million) and Turkey (US$500,000). The US, the EU and Ireland also pledged additional funds to the regional response for South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries. Amongst those donors opting not to commit additional funds, Sweden and Canada were the two major donors.
The numbers of people affected in South Sudan and neighbouring countries continue to climb. UN OCHA project up to 1.5 million internally displaced persons by the end of 2014, raising food security concerns particularly as the rainy season is beginning this month. Hostilities have continued in South Sudan despite a second peace agreement being reached on 9 May.
A more detailed briefing paper on South Sudan and the conference will be published next week.
Data are available in Excel and CSV format.
Notes:
- Not all money of the money pledged at the Oslo conference will be going to the UN South Sudan Crisis Response Plan 2014. The breakdown of this is yet to be released.
- Un-earmarked pledges by Norway and Denmark have been counted under pledges to South Sudan rather than the region.
Source:
UN OCHA FTS data (fts.unocha.org) downloaded on 20 May 2014 and data recorded at the pledging conference on 22 May 2014.