The Philippine government has committed $150,000 (approximately P8.3 million) for the United Nations initiatives to assist refugees and displaced persons in 2024.
The offer was made during the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Pledging Conference for 2024 in Geneva last Dec. 5.
Kristine Leilani Salle, Philippine Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, said Manila raised by 50 percent its usual contributions to the UNHCR.
Salle called on the international community to pool together its collective resources to protect and find durable solutions for refugees, stateless persons, asylum seekers and other displaced persons.
“It is for this reason that we are scaling-up our contribution, to the best of our national capacity as a middle-income country, especially as it has been our constant call for traditional and non-traditional donors alike to push the boundaries of global burden and responsibility sharing,” she said.
The Philippines has been a consistent donor to the UNHCR, as well as its specific refugee response plans, notably the Rohingya, Ukraine and Sudan in 2023.
Based on the latest UNHCR data, more than 108 million people were displaced worldwide, 76 percent of whom are being hosted by low- and middle-income countries.
The UNHCR said it needed at least $10.6 billion to support more than 130 million people expected to be forcibly displaced or left stateless by the end of 2024.