United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
AbbreviationUNRRA
Formation1943; 81 years ago (1943)
TypeSpecialized agency
Legal statusInactive
HeadquartersDupont Circle Building, Washington, D.C.
Parent organization
United Nations (from 1945)
The Dupont Circle Building was the UNRRA head office in Washington DC from October 1944[1][2]

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, pronounced /ˈʌnrə/ UN-rə) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948.[3] it became part of the United Nations in 1945. Its purpose was to "plan, co-ordinate, administer or arrange for the administration of measures for the relief of victims of war in any area under the control of any of the United Nations through the provision of food, fuel, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities, medical and other essential services".[4] Its staff of civil servants included 12,000 people, with headquarters in New York. Funding came from many nations, and totalled $3.7 billion, of which the United States contributed $2.7 billion; Britain, $625 million; and Canada, $139 million.

UNRRA cooperated closely with dozens of volunteer charitable organizations, who sent hundreds of their own staff to work alongside UNRRA. In operation for only four years, the agency distributed about $4 billion worth of goods, food, medicine, tools, and farm implements at a time of severe global shortages and worldwide transportation difficulties. The recipient nations had been especially hard hit by starvation, dislocation, and political chaos. It played a major role in helping Displaced persons return to their home countries in Europe in 1945–46.

Many of its functions were transferred to several UN agencies, including the International Refugee Organization and the World Health Organization. As an American relief project, it was later replaced by the Marshall Plan, which began operations in 1948.[5] However, the historian Jessica Reinisch has proposed that UNRRA should not just figure as a chapter in U.S. history, but rather that UNRRA was unique in that it managed to bring together very different partners and models of international relief, each of which had their own history and antecedents.[6]

  1. ^ "Legislação Informatizada - DECRETO-LEI Nº 6.987, DE 25 DE OUTUBRO DE 1944 - Publicação Original". Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.
  2. ^ "Fifty Facts about UNRRA" (PDF). CVCE.eu. Washington. February 15, 1947.
  3. ^ Johnson, Robert H. (1951). "International Politics and the Structure of International Organization: The Case of UNRRA". World Politics. 3 (4): 520–538. doi:10.2307/2008894. ISSN 1086-3338. JSTOR 2008894. S2CID 154554526.
  4. ^ "Agreement for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration". Ibiblio.org.
  5. ^ Hitchcock, 246-7
  6. ^ Reinisch, Jessica (2011). "Internationalism in Relief: The Birth (and Death) of UNRRA". Past and Present (Suppl 6): 258–289. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtq050. PMID 21280357.