5th Anniversary
5 years, 85 editions
2018 – 2023
Today we’re celebrating with our readers the 5th anniversary of the Défis Humanitaires online magazine. Five years during which we have published 85 editions, nearly 300 articles and 141 authors (list here) who brought us their experience, their analysis and their thoughts. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank them warmly for their trust and commitment.
Défis Humanitaires is primarily aimed at humanitarians, their friends and partners, and their environment. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of readers rose from 11,116 to 46,081, a 4-fold increase. In 2023, the number of articles increased from 4 to 7 each month. The number of views on social networks is growing strongly, as this article has just mobilized 250 supporters and generated 12,000 views on Linkedin.
Défis Humanitaires readers can be found mainly in France, but also in Burkina Faso, the United States, Mali, Great Britain, Congo Kinshasa, Senegal, Belgium, Canada and Australia. We’re proud of this, and we’d like to thank our ever-growing readership for supporting Défis Humanitaires in this way.
Défis Humanitaires was born out of the realization that, while humanitarian aid has made great strides in terms of volume and effectiveness to date, it must simultaneously advance in terms of knowledge, analysis, reflection, debate and perspective.
At the outset, we set ourselves 3 main objectives:
- Promote humanitarianism, which is little-known outside its field, if not superficially.
- Reflect on the links between geopolitics and humanitarianism, to better help the victims of crises.
- To alert and mobilize in the face of major challenges that threaten and require solutions, be they water resources, climate or demographics in Africa.
Are these priorities still relevant today?
Status report 2018-2023.
Before answering, it’s useful to look back over these 5 years and take a few examples. After a 20-year war, the Taliban took Kabul and control of the country on August 15, 2021. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, challenging the countries of Europe, NATO and the UN to a war that is set to last and could spread. In the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has driven 100,000 Armenians from their ancestral land of Artsakh in September 2023, and is now threatening Armenia itself. China is preparing sooner or later to seize Taiwan at the cost of major conflict and lost freedom. Studies on climate change indicate an acceleration of its harmful effects and a slowness to contain and adapt to it. Glaciers and pack ice bear witness to this.
Water is running out here, flooding there and being polluted everywhere, without any measures being taken to meet the human challenges. Hunger is on the rise again. Wars, climate, poverty and despair are multiplying migratory flows, at the risk of destabilizing host populations and countries, instead of undertaking large-scale initiatives to enable uprooted people to live at home.
The October 7 war, with its massacres in Israel, destruction and countless casualties in Gaza, is the epicenter of a never-ending drama that threatens to ignite a fragile Middle East. Countries such as Haiti, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and northern Nigeria are no longer emerging from chronic instability, while several Sahel countries are joining them in this spiral.
Lucidity is better than black pessimism or blissful optimism. An accurate diagnosis is the prerequisite for any solution, provided we want it and act on it!
Fortunately, significant progress has been made since 2000, notably with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and then with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015-2030. Other examples include advances in medicine and life expectancy, scientific research, renewable energies, innovation and much more. It’s also worth noting that in 2024, several countries – Burundi, Kenya, Malawi and Pakistan – no longer issued humanitarian appeals, and that according to OCHA, the humanitarian situation in Somalia and Yemen has even improved.
But it seems that in this match between threats and solutions, between needs and means, we’re not really up to the task of changing the pace and scale of risk management, even though it’s a matter of life insurance for all of us.
What’s next?
Having looked back over the past 5 years, let’s look ahead. What will happen next, and what will we do in the face of the challenges that lie ahead? Indeed, the painful transition from a multilateral to a multipolar world, the weakening of the UN, the return of war as a means of settling disputes, the seemingly inexorable climate change, the imploding demography in Africa against a backdrop of the crisis of the democratic model and the autocratic regime that is flourishing. These immense challenges call for lucidity, courage and boldness.
While humanitarian aid cannot be the answer to every challenge, in the face of wars, disasters and major epidemics, its mission is immense, and it must always save lives, relieve suffering, rebuild, and make the link with development, based on the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. These principles are the sine qua non for gaining access, as far as possible, to populations in danger, despite the violence that thrives everywhere.
But do we have the means to meet all identified needs? What do the figures on humanitarian budgets tell us?
According to the latest OECD report, the good news is that global Official Development Assistance (ODA) has risen by 22%, from 235 billion USD in 2021 to 287 billion USD in 2022. Results for 2023 will be available in early 2024. But there is less good news, and even cause for concern. Overall ODA to fragile contexts has fallen in volume, and particularly its humanitarian share. While overall humanitarian ODA from all donors has remained relatively stable, the DAC’s humanitarian effort has fallen sharply in percentage terms. In 2021, humanitarian ODA represented 14.9% of total ODA, compared with 12.4% in 2022. At the same time, humanitarian ODA from non-DAC members (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) has also fallen.
This erosion of humanitarian ODA is not without consequence, given that OCHA, which had estimated humanitarian needs at USD 41 billion at the start of 2022 and USD 51.7 billion by the end of 2022, has only mobilized USD 24 billion, or 47% of identified needs.
But, let’s face it, the worst was in 2023, which saw a sharp rise in commodity prices and operational relief costs, as well as major conflicts, notably in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Myanmar, and droughts in Ethiopia and Afghanistan. As Martin Griffiths put it, “This is the worst funding shortfall in years”. In the face of needs estimated at 56.7 billion USD, 19.9 billion USD in donations had been registered by December 4, 2023, i.e. a shortfall of 36.8 billion USD covering only 35% of needs, enabling 128 million people to be helped instead of 245! This has led to a reduction in aid for food, shelter, water and sanitation, health and protection! It’s a sad precedent and a dangerous record.
What will happen this year? The number of people in urgent need is estimated at 299.4 million, i.e. 39.6 million fewer than in 2022, due to a new needs analysis methodology that needs to be questioned. As a result, OCHA announces “…the need to prioritize the most urgent humanitarian needs, thus imposing difficult choices in the allocation of resources”.
That’s why Défis Humanitaires will be keeping a close eye on the funding issue, as we do in this 5th anniversary edition, with articles on ODA and the UN/OCHA Humanitarian Appeal, which you can access at the end of this editorial.
Our appeal to readers.
This year and next, we’ll be publishing a monthly edition. We also plan to publish our second Survey of Humanitarian NGOs (2006 and 2022), edit a book with a selection of our articles, organize a series of webinars and podcasts, and support an educational project. But there’s no secret about it: while we’re relying primarily on our own resources for this, we need partners more than ever if we are to succeed in bringing these projects to fruition, and if we are to extend humanitarian action beyond its usual boundaries, as the panel of experts testifies.
The initial priorities of Défis Humanitaires 5 years ago are still very much relevant today.
We’re calling on each and every one of you to participate by making a donation (makeadonation) that will make a difference. Our appeal is also addressed to Foundations, local authorities, institutions and sponsors, who are all welcome to help us build an independent, enterprising and innovative humanitarian project to serve people and populations in danger. Thank you for taking part in this project (makeadonation), which needs your help.
Alain Boinet
Alain Boinet is President of the association Défis Humanitaires, which publishes the online magazine www.defishumanitaires.com. He is the founder of the humanitarian association Solidarités International, of which he was Managing Director for 35 years. He is also a member of the Groupe de Concertation Humanitaire at the Centre de Crise et de Soutien of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, and of the Board of Directors of Solidarités International, the Partenariat Français pour l’Eau (PFE), the Véolia Foundation and the Think Tank (re)sources. He continues to travel to the field (North-East Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh and Armenia) and to speak to the media.
Find out more about edition 85 of Défis Humanitaires :