• Discussion paper
  • 13 May 2015

Nepal earthquake update

The Nepali government declared a state of emergency in areas affected by the devastating earthquake that struck on 25 April 2015.

The Nepali government declared a state of emergency in areas affected by the devastating earthquake that struck on 25 April 2015. The most recent UN Resident Coordinator’s Situation Report states that 8.1 million people (more than a quarter of the population) are in need of humanitarian assistance, and just under 18,000 people have been injured. An estimated 280,000 houses have been destroyed and 250,000 damaged. These figures are likely to rise in the aftermath of the second earthquake, which struck on 12 May 2015.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), donors have so far committed/contributed US$156 million of humanitarian assistance to the crisis.

A UN flash appeal for Nepal was launched on 29 April, requesting US$415 million from donors (which was updated to US$423 on 7 May 2015) to respond to the crisis. According to the FTS, it is currently 14% funded at US$58 million, with a further US$98.3 million in contributions made outside of the appeal and US$316 million remaining in uncommitted pledges (as of 13 May 2015).

The assistance picture is constantly changing, and slow reporting means that it is proving very hard to track all pledges and contributions. However, we hope that our document provides you with a useful overview of the current state of affairs to inform your work.

Read our full analysis of the current funding situation.

Accompanying data is available in Excel and Open Document.