IKEA Foundation donates $62 million for world's biggest refugee camp

Briefing notes

IKEA Foundation donates $62 million for world's biggest refugee camp

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

30 August 2011 Also available in:

UNHCR is pleased to announce today that we have received a $62 million donation from the IKEA Foundation geared towards expanding emergency relief for the thousands of people at the world's largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya.

The donation, which will be staggered over three years, is the largest private donation that the UN refugee agency has received in its 60-year history, and the first time that a private body has chosen to directly support a major refugee complex. UNHCR is working with the staff of the Foundation on the development of a detailed submission for how these funds will be used, but in the short-term the immediate focus will be helping the needs of up to recently arrived 120,000 refugees, with a particular focus on refugee families and children.

The Dadaab initiative is part of a broader and ongoing partnership arrangement between the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR that began a year ago and includes funding support to UNHCR's work in Bangladesh and East Sudan, in-kind product support to UNHCR's emergency operations in Kyrgyzstan and Tunisia as well as technical expertise in logistics, supply, packaging and warehousing.

Dadaab currently hosts a population of 440,000 refugees from Somalia, 152,000 of whom have arrived so far this year fleeing conflict, famine, and drought in their homeland.

Additional details can be found in the accompanying press release, or at www.unhcr.org as of 11am Geneva time today.

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