2024-01-31 05:52:44
The UN agency for presumed Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA It has only two national committees and one of them is, precisely, in Spain – the other is the American one. Its function is, above all, to “reach the public in these countries”, establish relationships and, as dice UNRWA itself on its website“galvanize public awareness, support and resource mobilization for Palestine refugees.”
However, despite these somewhat diffuse and apparently not very costly tasks, UNRWA Spain In 2023, it had a not inconsiderable budget of almost 2.15 million euros. And it is even more shocking to see in which games this important amount is spent.
The largest item is personnel., which represents close to two thirds of the total, almost 1,350,000 euros. A series of things hang from it, the amounts of which are not specified and which include “executive management”, “accounting and finance administration”, “internal management”, “communication, campaigns and fundraising”… In total, including the chapter on “compensation, extensions, coverage and other expenses” are eight subsections.
The second largest component of spending is “communication activities, campaigns and fundraising”, to which 376,000 euros are allocated. It is an important figure, but not so important if we think that, as we said at the beginning, this is the reason for the organization’s existence, but nevertheless only 16% is dedicated to it of the total budget.
Other important items are those destined for the headquarters and those for the delegations they have in eleven autonomous communities. The sum of both exceeds 160,000 euros. And those spent on trips are also important, both those for “representation”, presumably by members of the organization itself, and “delegations” and “field trips” which would be to the territories in which the organization operates. UNRWA. Together they are just over 100,000 euros.
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From there there are some minor expenses such as dedicated consulting and advisory services, 32,000 euros; for computing, almost 40,000 euros between hardware and software; to “education for global citizenship”, 20,000; the 18,000 for “general expenses” or the 11,000 for “internal management”.
One of the most striking games isa “gender commission”, which amounted to 14,100 euros in these budgets, and which is still a paradoxical expense if you see the respect they have for women and not to mention the LGTBI collective, the Palestinians, the supposed final objective of all the efforts of UNRWA Spain.
Of course, there is no not a euro of spending that has anything to do with projects on the ground in the Palestinian territories or in any of the other countries in which UNRWA operates. The only section that might seem related to real aid is “humanitarian action, development and emergency”, but it is only 3,000 euros and is intended for “strategic consulting”, so it does not seem that many Palestinians have benefited from this money.
This may be a significant anecdote, however, what is truly important is that only 16% of the total budget is dedicated to the organization’s objectives and, therefore, the vast majority of spending only serves to maintain an infrastructure that seems elephantine.
Perhaps that is why the success of UNRWA Spain in fulfilling these goals is rather limited, because the truth is that despite those more than two million spent, very few people know the existence of this UN agency and even less the work it does. it is supposed to develop.
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