Dear reader,

This is an unusual and even exceptional letter that I am personally addressing to you today.

Indeed, I believe that the many fractures we are experiencing herald a radical change of era and that we must together draw the lessons from it.

Since the launch of Défis Humanitaires we have published more than 500 articles and interviews and I believe that Défis Humanitaires fulfills its mission. Is it enough?

Today, we are witnessing two major ruptures: a fragmentation of the world where tensions are intensifying and an increase in humanitarian needs in the face of a sharp drop in funding.

Other risks exacerbate this tension: crisis of liberal democracy, global warming, loss of biodiversity, manipulated information.

Yet, great progress is taking place in the fields of research, health and life expectancy, human development, and education. However, hunger is rising again in the world, demography is exploding in Africa, disasters are multiplying, the climate is burning.

For 50 years, we have lived through three geopolitical periods: the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR, terrorism and the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York.

During these periods, humanitarian aid has continued to grow within the framework of a triple movement: the responsibility to protect populations in danger, economic globalization and a Western interventionist hegemony.

This period is over: war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, second election of Donald Trump, emergence of China as an imperial power, but also increase in military budgets, success of the BRICS, emergence of the Global South, dangerous tensions in the Asia-Pacific, increase in customs duties…

It is at this moment that the countries financing Official Development Assistance (ODA) and humanitarian action decide, led by the United States, to drastically reduce their funding.

At the “Paris Peace Forum”, the representative of one of the main donor countries announced with regret that ODA would decrease by 50%, or even more.

Concerning humanitarian aid, the fall in funding is such that the UN (OCHA) had to revise its plan at the end of July by reducing the number of people to be assisted to 114 million instead of 181 million out of 300 million people in danger.

What will be the consequences? Mortality, exile and migration, despair, destabilization, radicalization?

While the risks of war are increasing, as well as the essential needs of populations in danger, humanitarian aid is dangerously falling.

In this edition, we continue our mission of information and mobilization with interviews on this subject with VOICE and CHD and on Syria, which I invite you to read and share.

The world’s agenda is changing. Défis Humanitaires must evolve its mission.

We are initiating this reflection by inviting you to participate in it in several ways.

By giving us your opinion on the changes in the world, its progress and its risks.

By telling us what you think of the magazine Défis Humanitaires and what developments you would like.

By proposing to us evolutions of the layout so that it gains in impact.

By participating in this project which has a cost to which you can contribute by making a donation today to Défis Humanitaires on HelloAsso. Donation entitling you to a tax deduction.

It is for you that we publish Défis Humanitaires and it is with you that we want to adapt the magazine to new challenges. I thank you and do not hesitate to write to me at contact@defishumanitaires.com and to make a donation on HelloAsso.

Alain Boinet

President of Défis Humanitaires