Pledging Conference: nearly US$400 million pledged

At UNHCR's Pledging Conference on Monday we received funding pledges of US$393.8 million for our operations next year - up more than 10 percent compared to US$354.3 million pledged last year. About US$365.6 million was registered in firm pledges, while a further US$28.2 million had been pledged in writing before the conference. The funds will allow UNHCR operations to continue uninterrupted into 2007.

UNHCR had presented a budget of US$1.06 billion for next year. The funds are needed to assist approximately 21 million people of concern to UNHCR around the world, including some 8.6 million refugees, 6.6 million internally displaced persons, some 1.6 million returnees, 770,000 asylum seekers and 2.3 million stateless people. The largest programmes for 2007 are Chad (US$69 million), Afghanistan (US$52 million), Liberia (US$32 million), Kenya (US$32 million) and Tanzania (US$24.3 million).

UNHCR's Global Appeal for US$1.06 billion compares to $1.15 billion the previous year. We expect to issue about a dozen supplementary appeals during 2007, including for Iraq and south Sudan. The total UNHCR budget in 2006, including supplementary appeals, reached $1.47 billion.