Swiss pledge CHF40 million to struggling UNRWA

Dependent on UNRWA help: a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza City. Keystone / Haitham Imad

The government said on Friday that the country would pay CHF20 million ($21.4 million) into the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency in both 2023 and 2024.

The funding serves several Swiss priorities, the government said in a statementExternal link: as well as a sign of commitment to “human development, humanitarian action and regional stability”, it also allows the country to “continue to exert a positive influence on UNRWA’s policy and working methods”.

Despite previously voicing concerns about the role of UNRWA in the Middle East (see below), the government said on Friday that the agency plays “a key role as a stabilising factor in the region”. The situation for Palestinian refugees, particularly in Lebanon and Syria, has been exacerbated by conflicts over the past decade, the government said.

It highlighted the 710 UNRWA-run schools in the region, serving some 540,000 children – this creates opportunities and helps to “reduce the risk of radicalisation”.

UNRWA also runs 143 primary healthcare centres in the region, providing 3.1 million Palestinian refugees with access to high-quality health services each year, the government wrote.

Tough times

UNRWA has been hit by various funding and credibility crises over the past years, which reached a highpoint in November 2020, when the body was on the verge of financial collapse and unable to pay salaries.

In 2018, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis described the agency as a hindrance to the peace process in the region. In 2017, Switzerland temporarily suspended its payments (as did the US in 2018) and the Swiss head of the agency, Pierre Krähenbühl, resigned over allegations of misconduct, which he denied.  

Current boss of the agency Philippe Lazzarini, who is also Swiss, said last year that UNRWA had overcome its crises and that he had held promising talks with Cassis regarding shared priorities.

At the end of November 2022, however, during a funding appeal, Lazzarini said that the global economic crisis had again pushed the agency into a “danger zone” that could result in it no longer being able to fulfil its mandate.