India to contribute USD 13.36 million for UN agencies and development activities

India on Monday pledged contributions of USD 13.36 million for the various UN agencies and development activities.

Notably, India’s pledged contributions include USD 4.5 million to the UN Development Programme, five million dollars to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Near East, USD 1.92 million to the World Food Programme.

During the 2018 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities, First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Mahesh Kumar said India has been a regular contributor to the UN since its founding and believes that the UN should have the necessary resources to finance its activities, in an appropriate and balanced manner.

Kumar further also noted that the list is not exhaustive and India is separately processing contribution for Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Torture and UN Volunteers.

As many as 19 countries pledged a total of USD 425.69 million at the Pledging Conference, reflecting an increase from the 2017 amount of USD 398.98 million. It is to be noted that in the past five years, funding for humanitarian activities has increased by 65 percent compared to a 10 percent rise in funding for development.

In the year 2017, India in association with the UN Office for South Cooperation, established the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, a USD 100 million development finance facility.

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