The People’s Republic of China has announced a significant humanitarian contribution of USD 2.5 million to be channeled through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangladesh to address the critical cooking fuel needs of Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camps through the provision of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Cox's Bazar CSO NGO Forum (https://cxb-cso-ngo.org CCNF) warmly welcomes and appreciates this timely support and expresses its sincere gratitude to the People’s Republic of China for its continued contribution to the Rohingya humanitarian response.

However, CCNF has simultaneously raised significant concerns regarding the proposed implementation modality of that funding by the UNHCR.

CCNF strongly urges UNHCR not to channel the funds through international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and National NGOs. Instead, CCNF recommends that the implementation be directly through to capable local organizations that have a long-standing presence and deep operational experience in Cox’s Bazar.

Local organizations possess strong contextual knowledge, community trust, and the capacity to deliver services more efficiently and at lower cost, while large-scale direct implementation by the UN agencies often involves high operational overheads and managerial costs.

Furthermore, CCNF calls upon the People's Republic of China to leverage its influence to encourage UNHCR to prioritize local implementing partners for a low-cost and wide-level response. Any permissible overhead costs, CCNF stresses, should directly benefit local humanitarian actors to maximize the impact of the grant for the Rohingya refugee response.

During these funding constraints, CCNF considers it critical to strengthen localization and locally-led response to maximize the impact of the grant for the refugees. Empowering local actors not only enhances cost-effectiveness but also promotes sustainability, respects local realities and strengthens localization commitments.

CCNF also urges that UNHCR should be transparent about its sources of funding and budget expenditure, both operational and program, should be made public for greater transparency.

More than one million Rohingya refugees currently reside in Cox’s Bazar, making it one of the world’s largest and most protracted humanitarian crises. At a time when global humanitarian funding is shrinking, local partnerships are essential to reduce operational costs, sustain response and ensure efficient, community-centered response.