Tag: armenia

Global Humanitarian Overview 2023

The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordination’s (OCHA) annual World Humanitarian Situation Report analyzes humanitarian needs worldwide, providing an overview of trends, challenges and priority needs. By helping decision-makers, humanitarian organizations and donors to understand and respond to the most pressing crises, this report establishes a crucial basis for the formulation of OCHA funding appeals, demonstrating the essential link between a thorough understanding of humanitarian needs and the concrete actions required to meet them. The report also takes stock of the previous year’s achievements.

The final Global Humanitarian Overview, published on December 1, 2023, presents a review of the year 2023, as well as the objectives and outlook for 2024. This summary is based on the 2023 and 2024 reports.

I. Call for 2023 – Context at the beginning of the year

The call for 2023, the needs

The World Humanitarian Outlook 2023, unveiled in December 2022, identified 339 million people as being in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, an increase of 65 million compared to the start of 2022. The report highlighted funding requirements estimated at $51.5 billion to help 230 million of the 339 million people in need of assistance.

The year 2023 began with major economic challenges, characterized by inflation driving up prices and affecting many people in Haiti, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Overall, the period was marked by increased financial needs due to rising operational costs and commodity prices, as well as high inflation. At the same time, the beginning of 2023 was marked by the continuing war in Ukraine and major conflicts in Mozambique, Ethiopia and Myanmar, among others. Climate-related droughts have also increased the need for assistance in Ethiopia and Afghanistan. In short, violent conflicts affecting civilians, forced displacement, the biggest ongoing food crisis in modern history, natural disasters linked to climate change, public health under threat, gender equality hard to achieve, and access to education complicated by the pandemic.

II. Review 2023 – Year-end context

A succession of crises – a more difficult year than expected

Wasn’t that enough? In addition, the global humanitarian situation deteriorated further during the year, marked by earthquakes in Syria and Turkey, cholera and flooding in Malawi and Mozambique, intensified conflict in Sudan, flooding in Libya and the occupied Palestinian territory.

The series of crises throughout 2023 has made needs increasingly complex to meet, while the number of people affected by these crises has continued to rise (363.2 million). The objective has become to help 245.1 million people, i.e. 7% more than the number of people targeted at the beginning of 2023. During the month of November 2023, the financial requirements were re-evaluated upwards, recording a 10% increase, bringing the needs to 56.7 billion dollars.

Increased needs at the end of 2023 :

III. Gap between needs and financing – A high financing deficit

« This is the worst funding shortfall in years. » – Martin Griffiths

Growing humanitarian needs, declining funding.

Probably the most alarming observation of 2023, in addition to the multiplication and aggravation of crises, lies here.

Humanitarian needs for 2023 are at an all-time high, amounting to $56.7 billion. However, the percentage of funding available is historically low. As of December 4, 2023, $19.9 billion had been registered, representing a gap of $36.8 billion in relation to total needs, i.e. funding reaching only 35% of requirements. A worrying gap, especially in a context where demand is reaching record levels. In 2023, funding will be down on the previous year, marking the first decline since 2010. Indeed, in 2022, assistance of $24 billion was available to meet needs estimated at $51.7 billion at the end of the year, ensuring that requirements were covered at 47%.

Some of the consequences of this deficit are highlighted in the 2024 report:

  • Reduced food aid: more people at risk of starvation (according to the World Food Program’s estimate, a 1% reduction in food aid could push more than 400,000 people to the brink of starvation).
  • Lack of funding for shelters has forced people to live in unworthy and inadequate conditions, as observed in Haiti and Myanmar.
  • Lack of water, sanitation and healthcare resources: puts the most vulnerable populations at risk of disease and death.
  • Lack of investment in protection against gender-based violence: worldwide, 53% of targeted women have been able to access comprehensive gender-based violence services through UN Women.
  • Lack of access to essential support and services: fuels protection risks.

IV. Concrete actions in 2023

Key figures :

  • 128 million people worldwide received aid, i.e. 62% of those targeted.
  • 1/3 of United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA) pooled fund allocations went to national NGOs.
  • 7.8 million people received humanitarian aid thanks to private partnerships.
  • 119.5 million people received food aid, cash or vouchers.
  • 2.3 billion dollars transferred to 47 million people (cash or vouchers).
  • 46 million people benefited from emergency health aid.
  • 23.2 million people benefited from safe water supplies
  • 13.9 million children had access to education

Achievements

Improvements observed during 2023 include improved food and nutrition security, greater accessibility to inclusive healthcare such as emergency care and sexual and reproductive health, multi-sector humanitarian assistance focused on communities’ priority needs such as access to drinking water and education, and enhanced protection for women and children. In addition, progress has been made in the implementation of regional plans to meet a variety of humanitarian needs.

Results:

 

To conclude,

The year 2023 was marked by a series of humanitarian crises of unprecedented severity, aggravated by their multiplication on a global scale. Despite these challenges, humanitarian partners persevered in their efforts to meet the needs of the most vulnerable populations, reaching nearly 128 million people. However, the responses have often faced considerable constraints and obstacles, highlighting the growing complexity of contemporary humanitarian crises and the need for collective, coordinated action to respond effectively.

A summary written by Betty Bianchini

Défis Humanitaires, 5 years old and still relevant

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?

Building on fire in Kiev following a missile attack. UNICEF/Aleksey Filippov

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.

Bombing in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA/Ashraf Amra

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.

Women fetching water in Darfur. Photo Solidarités international

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 :