China pledges $2.5m for Rohingya cooking fuel support

The People's Republic of China has announced a humanitarian contribution of USD 2.5 million to be channelled 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 (CCNF) has welcomed the support and expressed gratitude to the People's Republic of China for its continued contribution to the Rohingya humanitarian response. However, the forum has raised concerns over the proposed modality for implementing the funding through UNHCR.

CCNF has urged UNHCR not to channel the funds through international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and national NGOs. Instead, it has recommended direct implementation through capable local organisations with a long-standing presence and proven operational experience in Cox's Bazar. According to the forum, local organisations have stronger contextual knowledge, greater community trust, and the capacity to deliver services more efficiently and at lower cost, while large-scale direct implementation by UN agencies often involves higher operational and managerial overheads.

The forum has also called on the People's Republic of China to use its influence to encourage UNHCR to prioritise local implementing partners to ensure a low-cost and wide-reaching response. Any permissible overhead costs, CCNF said, should directly benefit local humanitarian actors to maximise the impact of the grant.

Amid growing funding constraints, CCNF said strengthening localisation and locally led responses is critical to maximising the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance. Empowering local actors, it added, enhances cost-effectiveness, promotes sustainability, respects local realities, and reinforces localisation commitments. The forum also urged UNHCR to ensure transparency by making public details of its funding sources and budgetary expenditures, including both operational and programme costs.

More than one million Rohingya refugees currently live 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, CCNF said strong local partnerships are essential to reduce operational costs, sustain the response, and ensure efficient, community-centred assistance.