Report of the Secretary-General – Revised estimates relating to the proposed programme budget for 2025 under section 26, Palestine refugees – (A/79/515)

14 October 2024

Summary

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a provider of essential services for millions of Palestine refugees
in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Since 7 October 2023, it has also acted as the backbone of the entire
humanitarian response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. During 2024, following the finalization of the proposed programme budget for 2025 (A/79/6 (Sect. 26)), the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continued to worsen. The vast majority of Gaza has been destroyed, with almost the entire population displaced and reliant on international humanitarian assistance. UNRWA remains the backbone of a life-saving multi-agency United Nations and international humanitarian effort for the entire Gaza population, and its own operations remain a lifeline for the civilian population of Gaza, providing shelter, protection, food, water, sanitation, medicine, learning and psychosocial support and other life-saving services.
UNRWA faced an acute and existential financial crisis in early 2024, sparked by allegations of the involvement of 19 staff members in the October 7 attacks. Those
allegations have been duly investigated by the Office of Internal Oversight Services and the findings were communicated to Member States in early August 2024. On
5 February 2024, the Secretary-General, in coordination with the Commissioner General of UNRWA, appointed the Independent Review Group on the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to carry out an independent review of mechanisms and procedures to ensure adherence by UNRWA
to the humanitarian principle of neutrality. The Independent Review Group found that UNRWA had robust systems in place for this purpose. The report of the Independent Review Group contained 50 wide-ranging recommendations to further strengthen the mechanisms and processes in place to uphold neutrality, which the Agency committed to implementing in full. The independent review has contributed to restoring donors’ confidence. It is now the Agency’s priority to ensure the full and sustained implementation of all the recommendations and to that end it will count on the cooperation of Member States, including the donor community and the host countries, to cooperate fully in this regard.
In the light of the demands on the Agency posed by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for sustained implementation of the recommendations of
the Independent Review Group, the Agency requires additional post and non-post resources which were not foreseen during the preparation of the proposed programme
budget for 2025 (A/79/6 (Sect. 26)). The present report is therefore submitted to request the approval by the General Assembly of 29 new international posts under the
regular budget (comprising the establishment of 23 posts and the conversion of 6 positions funded through extrabudgetary resources to regular budget posts), the
geographical redeployment of 7 posts and the appropriation of an additional amount of $4,981,000 (net of staff assessment) under section 26, Palestine refugees, of the
proposed programme budget for 2025.