TEHRAN – The UN resident coordinator in Iran, Stefan Priesner, has said Iran's aid budget will need to be increased, at least doubled, following the war imposed by Israel on the country.

On June 13, Israel launched a major bombing campaign against Iran, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists.

The Israeli strikes hit military bases, nuclear sites, and residential areas across Iran.

Iran retaliated with waves of missiles and drone strikes, hitting cities in Israel. A ceasefire took effect on June 24.

“We are now doing the budgeting” for 2025, Priesner told a press briefing in Geneva, the Sun Malaysia reported.

“It’s a significant increase,” he said. “It’s a bit early to say how much we exactly need. But we certainly would expect a doubling of the funding.”

He hoped the international community would step up with more funding.

The official said that last year’s UN budget for development and humanitarian affairs in Iran was $75 million – roughly $50 million for refugees and $25 million for the development program.

Iran hosts the largest number of refugees in the world – around 3.5 million -- most of them from Afghanistan.

Speaking from Tehran, Priesner said he hoped aid and development would be seen as separate from other issues and the situation would trigger the international community to increase its support.

Priesner said that in 2022, the UN and the Iranian government agreed on a five-year programme on public health, socio-economic resilience, environmental protection, disaster reduction and management, and drug control.

The UN is now in talks with Tehran on “how to adapt the program to meet emerging needs” following the conflict with Israel.

Priesner indicated that the UN normally has 50 international staff in Iran and about 500 local staff.

Although some employees and their families had to leave their homes when Israel’s bombardment began, he said normal operations had resumed on Sunday.

UNSDCF 2023-27 

In March 2023, the priorities for the work of the United Nations in Iran, which constitute the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023-27, were officially announced, paving the way for the next five years of activities by UN entities in the country.

The UNSDCF was the focus of a meeting on March 12, 2023, with the participation of UN agencies, funds, and programmes, and government ministries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. With some 130 participants, the meeting brought together more than 80 representatives from 30 government entities, joined together by about 50 officials from 18 UN entities present in the country.

The meeting was co-organized by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the aim of enhancing collaboration and coordination between UN entities and relevant line ministries.

The signing of the UNSDCF is not the end of our collective work. “Now the implementation phase of the document has started.” Said Mr. Mohammad Hassani Nejad Pirkouhi, the Director-General for International Environmental and Sustainable Development Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting’s co-chair. 

“In the next 5-year period, coordinating and maintaining an interactive approach in defining and implementing joint activities will be the most important factor for our collective success,” he added.

Priesner also reaffirmed the alignment of the cooperation framework with the country’s development aspirations.  

“The new cooperation framework aligns well with national plans, especially with socio-economic resilience approaches, and it places emphasis on joint inter-sectoral programs,” said Priesner. “The UN in Iran can use its convening role to facilitate regional and international cooperation, including south-south and triangular cooperation.”

In this difficult time, we believe that transformative and innovative policies are needed to tackle complex challenges and support better and smarter, those most vulnerable,” added the UN Resident Coordinator.

During the meeting, the achievements of Iran in terms of advancing human development over the years were noted, and development trends and priority entry points for collaboration were explored.

The UNSDCF covers the period 2023-2027, and is aligned with Iran’s 7th National Development Plan. The document is focused on five strategic pillars of public health management: Socio-economic resilience, Environmental protection, integrated natural resources management and addressing climate change, Disaster risk reduction and management, and Drug Control. 

The UNSDCF also allows for the UN to provide humanitarian support to host communities, in coordination with national authorities.

The socio-economic resilience pillar of the UNSDCF is based on policies to support a full-employment economy and to help the country realize the “demographic dividend” by focusing on education and skills development. 

Under the UNSDCF, United Nations agencies would help foster inclusive growth by supporting the strengthening of the country’s development plans and programmes. This would include promoting human and social capital development and increasing institutional capacities and access to integrated social protection services. 

The public health management pillar will work towards improved public health management systems promoting health for all through a health system that is resilient and that addresses a wide range of vulnerabilities in diverse settings and emergencies and works to see that all partners contribute to addressing health determinants and risk factors and to promoting healthy lifestyles and settings. 

This would include supporting service delivery and health information systems, capacity development of the health workforce, and enhancing the availability and affordability of medicines and health-care services.

The third pillar is devoted to environmental conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, and the capacity to address climate challenges.

The environment pillar would promote the integration of environment-friendly policies into all sectors, promote improved management of natural resources and biodiversity conservation, and work to increase national capacities to address climate action, including through international advocacy for climate finance.

In the area of disaster risk reduction and management, the Cooperation Framework would support programs that integrate disaster risk reduction into development plans and programs and strengthen institutional capacities for effective disaster preparedness, response, and recovery while enhancing the capacities of people working in the area of disaster resilience, risk reduction, and preparedness.

The pillar would help integrate disaster risk reduction into development plans and programs among a wide variety of stakeholders and would work to increase institutional capacities for managing disaster risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery.

In terms of drug control, the Cooperation Framework would support improved access to evidence-based drug prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and drug-related services and would help to strengthen national capacity for effective border management and drug trafficking control, including drug-related crime, by providing effective international financial and technological assistance. 

The United Nations partners would work to increase and improve the available services and would work with the Government to address the issues of border management, illicit trafficking of drugs, and drug-related crime. 

In all of these thematic areas, the contribution of the United Nations towards the achievement of the Government’s national development goals will take several forms as laid out in the UNSDCF. 

These include but are not limited to support for capacity development of institutions and entities, providing technical support for results-based programing, helping to build an evidence base through improved data collection, analysis and reporting, promoting and strengthening multisectoral approaches to solve problems, identifying and delivering global best practices including through South-South and Triangular Cooperation, facilitating knowledge transfer and technological support, and providing baselines for development outcomes and carrying out impact evaluation.