JRP to seek $870m for Rohingyas

The Joint Response Plan for Rohingyas, which will be launched in Geneva today, will appeal for $870.6 million for one year – at a time when the global crises in different parts of the world have led to a decline in funding.

The Joint Response Plan aims to maintain and enhance lifesaving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance and services for Rohingyas, by providing decent shelter and access to food, health, water, sanitation, and hygiene services.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam is leading a Bangladesh delegation to the Geneva meeting organized by the UN.

"We will urge the international community not to shift focus from the Rohingya crisis. Repatriation of the Rohingyas is our main focus but until that happens, there will be huge need of funding that is not possible for Bangladesh alone to take the burden," a foreign ministry official told this correspondent yesterday.

The fund for humanitarian assistance that ranged between 72 and 75 percent of the total requirement in the first three years since 2017 came down to 65 percent in 2020. The funding declined to 63 percent in 2022.

The World Food Programme has cut the voucher value from $12 per person per month to $10, starting 1 March when the entire Rohingya population remained dependent on WFP to meet their basic food and nutrition needs. Malnutrition among children and women was already high.

Meanwhile, six UN agencies have started implementing Rohingya refugee response projects at the camps in Cox'Bazar and Bhasan Char following the allocation of over $9 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in January this year, UN said in a statement yesterday.

CERF is a mechanism through which donors pool their contributions in advance, allowing humanitarian agencies to provide initial, life-saving assistance wherever crises strike while they await additional funding.

On this, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, Gwyn Lewis said the UN in Bangladesh welcomes the decision of the Emergency Relief Coordinator to allocate these funds to the currently underfunded Rohingya Response to support refugees and the host community in their daily struggle for survival.