UNITED NATIONS: Too often only half of the money from donors is getting to the millions of people devastated by conflicts and natural disasters who desperately need humanitarian aid, the co-chair of a UN-appointed panel said on Wednesday.

Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commission’s vice president for budget and human resources, said the nine-member panel trying to find new financing to help the rapidly growing number of people needing humanitarian aid is urging donors and aid organisations to work more closely to drive down costs.

“Humanitarian money is like gold” because it saves lives, she told a briefing on the panel’s report. “But our goals very often are very low karat — a 9 karat gold — because we take a dollar or a pound or a yen or a rouble, and by the time it gets to the recipient it shrinks to only half of what it is worth.”

Georgieva said this is because of transaction costs, administration and “because of us creating bureaucracy.”

The report said the world is spending around $25 billion to help 125 million people today — more than 12 times the $2bn spent in 2000 — but there is still a $15bn annual funding gap. It warned that if the current trend continues, the cost of humanitarian assistance will rise to $50bn by 2030.

The report focuses on three solutions: mobilising more funds, shrinking the need for aid by preventing and resolving conflicts, and improving the efficiency of assistance.

“There are plenty of examples where 90, even 95 cents on the dollar get into the hands of people in need,” Georgieva told several journalists after the briefing, and these should be emulated as best practices.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2016