View previous stories
	African leaders need to address hunger, conflict, gender inequalities by African Child Policy Forum, Action Against Hunger   June 2024   On this 16th day of June 2024, as the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, we come together to express our solidarity in the commemoration of the Day of the African Child.   We underscore our deep concern about the violation of the rights of children as the world faces an escalation of multiple economic and social challenges enforced by different factors such as poverty, climate change and armed conflicts that consequently impact children’s access to quality, accessible and adaptable education.   Particularly, we cannot turn a blind eye to the escalation of armed conflicts that are occurring worldwide. At a global level, children caught in armed conflict reached “extreme levels” last year, with a shocking 21% increase in violations.   Within Africa, an estimated 183 million of these children to be living in conflict zones.   We are thus concerned by the increased conflicts raging across the world swallowing children into their cruel cores. Children continue to find themselves caught up in the cruel crossfires of conflict where there is great disregard for their safety and wellbeing.   These ongoing conflicts are characterised by grave violations against children including killing and maiming, abduction, physical and sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, forced recruitment into armed groups/forces and denial of humanitarian assistance.   Other pertinent violations with an African lens include child marriages, harmful traditional practices and child labour. We are concerned that despite the disproportionate impact on children, children are often overlooked in disaster management and responses by States.   These conflicts disrupt the education of children, as schools are destroyed or repurposed by armed forces, directly underming our collective goal of ensuring quality education, as reiterated in this year’s theme of the Day of the African Child “Education for All Children in Africa: The time is now”.   We reiterate the ACERWC’s Agenda for Children (Agenda 2024), specifically aspirations 6 and 9, which highlight the importance of education and the need to protect children from armed conflict. The destruction and militarization of educational spaces not only obstructs daily learning but also poses a threat to the development of children, affecting their cognitive, emotional, and social growth during the most crucial phase of their development.   In Africa, armed conflict is coupled with other crises including the devastating effects of climate change and natural disasters which result in increased displacement and/or starvation due to drought and famine and various health crises. These include the COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola, malaria and poverty.   Poverty continues to prevent families and the States from providing children with their basic needs; and other socio-economic needs such as adequate housing, a high standard of healthcare and access to quality education.   We stress the negative impact of these existing crises, further exacerbated by armed conflict which breaks down the rule of law that upholds the rights of children as well as the institutions needed to implement these rights.   We note that these breakdowns in society set back development and progress. We deplore the unfathomable destruction of infrastructure in Khartoum, Sudan. Such destruction impedes development, causing children living in areas affected by armed conflict to be left behind, contrary to Goal 2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.   Displacement of children caused by war also cuts children off from receiving education and health care services, including routine health checks and vaccinations/immunizations.   Malnutrition is now an urgent crisis engulfing children in Sudan, with one in three children in Zam-Zam camp acutely malnourished. We note the warning of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gehebreyesus that “malnourished children face a lifetime of developmental challenges and ill-health and are more likely to die from infectious diseases”.   We also draw attention to the impact of conflict-related displacement on neighbouring communities and/or countries with already limited resources. We note that the struggle for resources between refugees and host communities poses a risk of increased conflict.   The impact of this is likely to be highest on the children of both refugee and host communities as their everyday reality is shaken up by the changes brought about by armed conflict.   In our mandate to oversee that children’s rights are upheld both globally and regionally, we would like to draw attention to the important role of children in our society. As custodians of the future, it is our duty to ensure that children have the best quality of life and are shielded from the crossfires of conflict.   We call upon all States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and all other Human Rights Conventions relevant to the protection of the rights of children in Armed Conflict, to uphold their obligations and ensure a minimal impact of armed conflict on children.   The future peace and development of the African continent, and the well-being of our children demands ceasefires in current armed conflicts and for all stakeholders to rigorously work to prevent any future conflicts.   Recalling that education is central to enhancing children’s potential, and to ensure that the gains made in enhancing education on the continent are not lost to conflict, we emphasise that it is time for education systems to be reformed and made adaptable, so that they are not rendered vulnerable to armed groups.   It is time that leaders on the continent provide enhanced school security in conflict-prone regions, invest in digitalised and remote education, and take other measures to ensure that children’s education continues as much as possible despite conflict.   The building of pathways towards a peaceful future in which children can thrive cannot wait, it must start now. The road to recovery will require children affected by armed conflict to be reintegrated into communities and provided with support, as well as the possibility of access to justice and remedies for the harms they experienced. To change the determinants of war, children must play a key role in peace-building and prevention.   As we are commemorating the 2024 Day of the African Child, we call upon:   States parties to work towards a future in which armed conflict on the continent is significantly reduced, the proliferation of arms is halted, and there is no recruitment of child soldiers. States parties to enforce international instruments explicitly prohibiting the recruitment and use of children as soldiers. States parties to fully commit to the Safe Schools Declaration, thereby preventing the use of and or attacks on schools by armed forces.   International partners to support the efforts of the Governments to make the right to education a reality for all children in Africa. State parties and regional and international partners to develop adapted education systems to cater for children already affected by armed conflict.   http://www.acerwc.africa/en/article/statements/joint-statement-un-committee-rights-child-and-acerwc-day-african-child http://www.acerwc.africa/en/article/statements/day-african-child-2024-education-all-children-africa-time-now-childrens-outcome   Feb. 2024   Action Against Hunger calls on African Union Summit to prioritize actions to address hunger, conflict resolution and gender equality.   Action Against Hunger is calling on African Heads of States and Governments to prioritize regional conflict resolution and gender equality at the Feb. 18th AU Summit. The AU Heads of State Assembly, Africa’s supreme policy and decision-making body that determines AU policies, programs, and priorities, will meet for the 37th Session.   This year’s Summit occurs against a backdrop of growing challenges throughout the continent, including droughts and floods fueled by climate change, increasing food insecurity, widespread conflict, and a rise in gender-based violence.   Action Against Hunger urges leaders to take action, especially as food prices spike following the aftermath of global events including the war in Ukraine, the Rea Sea crisis, and the conflict in Gaza.   Conflict is a primary driver of hunger in Africa. An estimated 149 million Africans face acute food insecurity, and 82% of those impacted live in conflict-affected countries.   Conflict disrupts agriculture, destroys key infrastructure, and prevents people from accessing markets, schools, and hospitals. It forces people to flee their homes, leaving lives and livelihoods behind. Humanitarian workers are unable to deliver assistance in areas with increasing violence.   At a time when conflict is rampant and hunger is rising, Action Against Hunger calls on African leaders to take a stronger stance and commit to resolving conflicts across the region.   “We welcome that peace and security issues are high on the 2024 AU Summit agenda and urge leaders to focus on the link between conflict and hunger—both of which are preventable,” says Michelle Brown, Associate Director of Advocacy for Action Against Hunger. “The alarming resurgence of hunger goes hand-in-hand with the growing number and intensity of armed conflicts and warring parties’ flagrant disregard of international humanitarian law.”   In January, Action Against Hunger released its 2024 Hunger Funding Gap report, which revealed a significant gap in funding for humanitarian assistance in African countries dealing with crisis levels of hunger. The report found that, globally, only 35% of appeals from countries dealing with crisis levels of hunger were funded, resulting in a hunger funding gap of 65%, up 23% from 2022.   The world is not responding to these hunger crises with sufficient funding. African countries in the report included Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan.   Globally, more than one billion adolescent girls and women suffer from undernutrition, according to The Gender Nutrition Gap Report released by a coalition of partners, including Action Against Hunger. In Africa, nearly 60% of women are experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.   “By failing to close the gender nutrition gap, Action Against Hunger believes we are jeopardizing the lives of women and girls and our collective future as a continent,” said Alvin Munyasia, Action Against Hunger’s Advocacy and Communications Specialist for the Horn and Eastern Africa, who is attending the AU Summit.   Action Against Hunger is a partner and member of the Gender Is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC), advocating for the full participation, empowerment, and enhanced leadership roles for women and young girls in Africa, and advancing guarantees of full gender equity, equality, food security, and social protection for all.   * Nov. 2023   Child rights and wellbeing campaigners have urged African governments to take immediate action to end child poverty and hunger across the continent. The call comes as new research reveals Africa is home to nearly 60 percent of the world’s poor children.   Two new reports from the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) show that African children are the poorest in the world, and that they are getting poorer. At the same time, 55 million African children under the age of five are stunted due to malnutrition. In the Horn of Africa nearly two million children are at risk of starvation, and in the Sahel, seven million are suffering severe hunger.   “There appears to be no end in sight to Africa’s child poverty and hunger crisis,” said ACPF Executive Director Dr Joan Nyanyuki. “Across the continent, millions of children face hunger, slow starvation and even death. African governments must take their responsibilities seriously and ramp up their investment in eradicating poverty and hunger.   “Child hunger is fundamentally a political problem, and I refuse to accept that it is either inevitable or insoluble. Time after time we have pointed out to governments that poverty and hunger are not only a humanitarian crisis, they are a huge drag on social and economic development. It is governments’ own interests to put and end to them.”   In an effort to galvanise African governments into action, ACPF have released two new reports: the African Report on Child Wellbeing 2023 Justice not Charity: African Governments Must End Child Poverty and No End in Sight: Child Hunger in Africa.   352 million African children - more than half of all the children in the continent - live in multidimensional poverty. Of these, six in every ten experience severe forms of poverty.   Another 110 million African children are on the brink of poverty, at significant risk of being tipped into it by the illness of a parent or caregiver, or by drought, conflict, displacement or economic crisis.   More than half of African children living in extreme poverty live in six countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Uganda and Niger.   In South Sudan and Niger, almost every child faces severe deprivations in almost every aspect of their wellbeing.   Of the 600 million children in Africa, 90 percent lack a minimum acceptable diet and 60 percent lack minimum meal frequency. Girls, children living in urban slums or remote rural areas, children living in conflict zones, children with disabilities, and children affected by HIV/AIDS are among the most deprived groups facing a greater risk of severe poverty.   Most African countries fail to provide for the basic needs of children and to deliver basic services to them. Of the 52 countries assessed only 14 have above average scores for addressing child deprivation and poverty.   “Poverty leads to hunger, which in turn leads to greater poverty,” added Dr Nyanyuki. “This vicious circle threatens Africa’s future economic and social prosperity. Poverty and hunger damage a child’s cognitive development, physical health and growth, educational outcomes and future employment opportunities. Their impacts last a lifetime. Tackling the root causes of child undernutrition is crucial for the social and economic transformation of Africa. The performance of African governments in addressing child poverty is poor and unacceptable.”   ACPF urged African governments to adopt a six point action plan as a matter of urgency:   Recognise child hunger and undernutrition as a national emergency. Integrate child rights into national development planning. Invest in high-quality pre-primary and primary education. Improve access to and the quality of maternal and child health services. Establish universal child-sensitive social protection programmes. Strengthen governance and accountability.   “Failure to address child undernutrition costs countries a significant proportion of their annual gross domestic product and hinders post pandemic recovery. Healthy and well-nourished children tend to be better educated, get better jobs, and earn, save and invest more - all of which are critical for Africa’s economic growth and prosperity,” concluded Dr Nyanyuki.   * African Report on Child Wellbeing 2023: Justice not Charity: African Governments Must End Child Poverty. African Child Policy Forum (140pp): http://tinyurl.com/2vju669w   http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/action-against-hunger-calls-on-african-union-summit-to-prioritize-conflict-resolution-and-gender-equality/ http://africacenter.org/spotlight/unresolved-conflicts-continue-to-drive-africas-food-crisis/ http://actionaid.org/publications/2024/over-18-million-girls-missing-school-africa-continent-loses-usd29-billion http://www.savethechildren.net/news/education-africa-violent-attacks-against-schools-rose-20-2023 http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/the-most-affected-why-childrens-voices-must-be-at-the-heart-of-the-food-and-nutrition-crisis-response/ http://theconversation.com/development-aid-cuts-will-hit-fragile-countries-hard-could-fuel-violent-conflict-215914   http://actionaid.org/publications/2023/fifty-years-failure-imf-debt-and-austerity-africa http://theconversation.com/african-countries-lost-control-to-foreign-mining-companies-the-3-steps-that-allowed-this-to-happen-218437 http://theconversation.com/climate-change-alarming-africa-wide-report-predicts-30-drop-in-crop-revenue-50-million-without-water-224543 http://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/sudan/sudan-international-community-should-prioritize-the-will-of-sudanese http://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/37th-au-summit-rule-of-law-and-human-rights-must-be-at-the-heart-of http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/12/2025-human-rights-roadmap-african-union http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/26/african-governments-falling-short-healthcare-funding Visit the related web page
	We need to do everything possible to save lives by Martin Griffiths, Joyce Msuya UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs   As the United Nations 2024 Global Humanitarian funding appeal, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, UNHCR, the Red Cross and humanitarian agencies face serious shortfalls in funding to address the most urgent needs of over 350 million people in crisis, news agencies report bumper profits for billionaires, record company super profits and a new world record for global military spending.   Apr. 2024   Dangerous levels of acute hunger affected at least 281.6 million people last year – the fifth year in a row that food insecurity has worsened – heightening growing fears of famine and “widespread death” from Gaza to Sudan and beyond.   According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises, more than one in five people in 59 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2023.   “When we talk about acute food insecurity, we are talking about hunger so severe that it poses an immediate threat to people's livelihoods and lives. This is hunger that threatens to slide into famine and cause widespread death,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Liaison Office in Geneva.   Food crises escalated alarmingly in 2023, the report’s authors noted, citing particular concerns over Gaza and Sudan today “where people are clearly dying of hunger”, said Gian Carlo Cirri, WFP Director, Geneva office.   After nearly seven months of conflict in Gaza, “people cannot meet even the most basic, food needs. They have exhausted all coping strategies. They are destitute and clearly some are dying of hunger,” Mr. Cirri said.   "The only way to halt the famine is to ensure daily deliveries of food supplies in a very short time. Like tomorrow, we really need to significantly increase our food supplies. This means rolling out massive and consistent food assistance in conditions that allow humanitarian staff and supplies to move freely and for affected people to access safely the assistance.”   “We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation. We estimate 30 per cent of children below the age of two are now acutely malnourished or wasted and 70 per cent of the population in the north is facing catastrophic hunger,” WFP’s Mr. Cirri said. “There is reasonable evidence that all three famine thresholds – food insecurity, malnutrition, mortality – will be passed in the next six weeks.”   On Sudan, the UN report notes that 20.3 million people – or 42 per cent of the population – struggled to find enough to eat last year, after conflict erupted in April. This represents the highest number of people in the world facing “emergency” levels of acute food insecurity, or phase four, in line with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warning scale, where phase five (IPC5) indicates the highest level of danger.   The report also warned that people in South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali likely endured the worst levels of food insecurity – IPC 5 – in 2023.   Data was not available for some countries where there have been enduring fears over food crises, including Ethiopia, the report’s authors noted, while also pointing out that in Haiti, thousands of people were identified as IPC5 from September 2022 to February 2023.   39 countries faced emergency – IPC4 – levels of acute food insecurity last year, including Sudan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Yemen.   “Households in this severe situation face large food gaps, which are either reflected in high acute malnutrition rates and excess mortality,” the Global Report on Food Crises noted.   Children and women are among those at the forefront of the hunger crises, with over 36 million children under 5 years of age acutely malnourished across 32 countries, the report shows. Acute malnutrition worsened among people displaced because of conflict and disasters in 2023.   Drivers of food crises   Intensifying conflict and insecurity, the impacts of economic shocks, and the effects of extreme weather events are continuing to drive acute food insecurity. These interlinked drivers are exacerbating food systems fragility, rural marginalization, poor governance, and inequality, and lead to massive displacement of populations globally. The protection situation of displaced population is additionally impacted by food insecurity.   Conflict remained the primary driver affecting 20 countries with nearly 135 million people in acute food insecurity – almost half of the global number. The Sudan faced the largest deterioration due to conflict, with 8.6 million more people facing high levels of acute food insecurity as compared with 2022.   Extreme weather events were the primary drivers in 18 countries where over 77 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity, up from 12 countries with 57 million people in 2022. In 2023, the world experienced its hottest year on record and climate related shocks impacted populations, with episodes of severe floods, storms, droughts, wildfires, and pest and disease outbreaks.   Economic shocks primarily affected 21 countries where around 75 million people were facing high levels of acute food insecurity, due to their high dependency on imported food and agricultural inputs, persisting macroeconomic challenges, including currency depreciation, high prices and high debt levels.   Tackling food crises requires urgent long-term national and international investment to boost agricultural and rural development alongside greater crisis preparedness and critical lifesaving assistance at scale, where people need it most.   Peace and prevention must also become an integral part of the longer-term food systems transformation. Without this, people will continue to face a lifetime of hunger and the most vulnerable will starve.   Since 2023, needs have outpaced available resources. Humanitarian operations are now desperately overstretched, with many being forced to scale-down and further cut support to the most vulnerable.   More equitable and effective global economic governance is imperative and must be matched with government led plans that seek to reduce and end hunger.   The Global Network Against Food Crises urgently calls for a transformative approach that integrates peace, prevention and development action alongside at-scale emergency efforts to break the cycle of acute hunger which remains at unacceptably high levels.   http://www.fsinplatform.org/global-report-food-crises-2024-mid-year-update http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-director-child-nutrition-and-development-victor-aguayos-remarks-global-report http://www.wfp.org/publications/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/resources/countries-in-focus/en/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/   http://www.fsinplatform.org/report/global-report-food-crises-2024/ http://www.wfp.org/stories/2023-pictures-ration-cuts-threaten-catastrophe-millions-facing-hunger http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/global-hunger-funding-gap-hit-65-percent-for-neediest-countries/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/2023-review-nearly-16000-children-day-plunged-hunger-top-10-worsening-food-crises http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024/   22 Apr. 2024   Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) reports global military spending of $2440 billion in 2023.   Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.   The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.   The two largest spenders – the United States (37%) and China (12%) – made up around half of global military spending, increasing their expenditure by 2.3% and 6% respectively. While dwarfed by the US in military spending, China, as the world’s second biggest spender, allocated an estimated $296bn in 2023, an increase of 6% on 2022. Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and the UK follow in Sipri’s league table..   http://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/global-military-spending-surges-amid-war-rising-tensions-and-insecurity   Mar. 2024   The Forbes 2024 Billionaires list reports that the number of worldwide billionaires grew by 141 in the past year, with 2,781 people holding wealth that exceeds $1 billion. These people own combined assets of $14.2 trillion, exceeding the gross domestic product of every country in the world except the U.S. and China.   Their collective wealth has risen by 120% in the past decade, at the same time as billions of people across the world have seen their living standards decrease in the face of inflation and the cost of living crisis.   “It’s been an amazing year for the world’s richest people, with more billionaires around the world than ever before,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ wealth editor. “Even during times of financial uncertainty for many, the super-rich continue to thrive.”   Luke Hildyard, the executive director for the High Pay Centre thinktank, said: “The billionaire list is essentially an annual calculation of how much of the wealth created by the global economy is captured by a tiny caste of oligarchs rather than being used to benefit humanity as a whole. It should be the most urgent mission to spread this wealth more evenly.”   While the global population is "living through incredibly unequal times, lurching from one crisis to the next," says Robert Palmer, executive director of Tax Justice U.K., the richest people in the world amass "extraordinary levels of wealth."   "World leaders need to ensure the super rich are paying their fair share, for example through introducing wealth taxes. This would help provide the resources needed to tackle multiple crises from hunger, to inequality and climate change."   Jan. 2024   Taxing windfall profits of fossil fuels and financial companies. (ActionAid, Oxfam)   In the two years running up to June 2023, 36 companies (14 in fossil fuels and 22 in the banking sector), made windfall profits of US$424 billion. These are not their overall profits, these are just the profits that are above and beyond their normal profits.   In the last two years, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and high inflation and interest rates in much of the world have helped contribute to the bumper profits of fossil fuels companies and the banking sector. By applying a 90% tax on these windfall profits, close to US$382bn could be raised. This money is urgently needed to address hunger, for climate action, to protect vulnerable communities and to build resilience through improved social protection and public services.   Launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2024. Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (Extract):   As enter 2024, almost 300 million people around the world are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection – 300 million people.   And we know the causes. New and resurgent conflicts around the world with deep and long-lasting consequences, almost none of which are resolved and become what we call intractable.   This year, we have seen the eruption of yet more brutal conflicts. In Sudan in April and, in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in October, joining the myriad other unresolved conflicts that have kept millions of people in the state of prolonged need. A year ago Ukraine, Syria, Yemen to name only a few.   The global climate emergency has continued to spiral out of control. 2023 has been the hottest year on record. We have seen multiple concurrent climate disasters, from Tropical Cyclone Freddy in southern Africa to wildfires in Europe, and the other devastation wrought by storm Daniel in Libya. And we were lucky to escape famine in the Horn of Africa. More children are now are displaced by climate than by conflict.   Persistent unequal economic pressures, climate disasters, disease outbreaks and other factors are significant drivers of need. Across the world more people are displaced than at any time since the beginning of this century: One in every 73 people around the world, a ratio that has been doubled in more than 10 years.   Nearly one in five children around the world is either living in or fleeing from conflict. 258 million people are facing acute food insecurity or worse. Disease outbreaks continue to cause significant loss of life, with deadly cholera outbreaks in 29 countries. In Sudan, fueled by a overstretched health system, with shortages of vaccines and lack of access to clean water and sanitation.   In the face of such immense challenges, the humanitarian community, has continued to provide some form of assistance this year to 128 million people worldwide – a heroic effort thanks to the generosity of many people. These efforts save lives. They make a decisive difference in many crises.   Across the humanitarian community, we continued our efforts to make humanitarian action more efficient, more effective and accountable to those we serve. We are aim to empower more affected people and to devolve more direction and decision making to the local level. More than ever, it’s time to put those affected by crisis at the center of our decision making.   But these efforts have taken place against the backdrop of a severe and ominous funding crisis. In 2023, we have so far received just over one third of the $57 billion required, making this the worst funding shortfall in years.   The result is that many people, around 38 percent of those targeted through our emergency-specific plans in countries, did not get the humanitarian assistance we sought to provide. Throughout the year, humanitarian agencies had to make painful decisions, including cutting life-saving food, water and health programming.   The World Food Programme reports that for every one per cent cut in funding - 400,000 more people fall into serious food insecurity. And we would like to hope, to not continue this trend into next year.   In preparing the Global Humanitarian Overview for 2024, we have worked hard with robust, evidence-based appeals anchored in the most comprehensive analysis of needs, with an even more disciplined focus on the most urgent life-saving needs as the overwhelming priority.   On behalf of more than 1,900 humanitarian partners around the world we assess we require $46 billion to assist 181 million people in 72 countries in the most urgent humanitarian need in 2024.   We are also issuing a wider call to action. Humanitarian assistance cannot be the entire solution – everyone needs to be part of this process. It is time to redouble our efforts to look at the root causes of humanitarian need: Conflict, climate change and economic dynamics. It is time to look at ways to back durable solutions.   We are facing an increasingly multipolar, fragmented, competitive and unstable world. It’s a world in which we’re seeing the multiplication of State and non-State actors, with 175 million people, now believed to be living under the control of armed groups.   It’s a world that is increasingly globalized, increasingly interconnected, in which a crisis in one place affects millions of people in other places and provides challenges to multilateral action and stability.   In these challenging times, more vigorous diplomatic action is required in support of swift humanitarian response. We need to engage with all parts of international communities to reach the people in communities whose lives have been so quickly turned upside down.   Just look at Sudan. At how the humanitarian situation is so badly unravelling, in the context of so little diplomatic progress.   If we are to overcome increasingly complex challenges to humanitarian action, which we will see in 2024 – it’s all of us, who need to come together to play our part. The most important role the international community can play in crises is to do everything possible to save lives, to reconfirm that we are, at our core, one humanity.   Remarks by Joyce Msuya, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator:   The world is in the midst of one of the largest humanitarian crises of the modern era, with the devastation wrought by conflict, climate change and economic hardship fuelling unprecedented levels of suffering.   Nearly one out of every five children is either living in conflict or fleeing from it. The number of people suffering acute food shortages caused mainly by climate-related disasters has doubled in the space of a year. The displacement crisis is now worse than any we have seen this century.   And today’s conflicts are more intense than ever. In just two months, 17,000 civilians have reportedly been killed in Gaza, the majority of them women and children.   In the face of all of this, humanitarians around the world have continued to display astonishing levels of sacrifice, resolve and courage as they strive to reach people in their darkest hour.   This year, thanks to the generous contributions of donors, the humanitarian community helped 128 million people with some form of assistance. This is a sign that efforts to strengthen humanitarian action are working.   We are now more efficient, effective and accountable. We have devolved more power to frontline responders. And we’re getting better at anticipating threats so that people can prepare for disaster before it strikes. Yet despite these herculean efforts, millions were not reached.   Donor funding this year fell far short of needs. Indeed, 2023 will be the first year since the global recession that finance for humanitarian emergencies is lower than the previous year.   As a result, humanitarian agencies have had to make increasingly painful decisions, cutting life-saving food, water and health programming, with devastating results for so many.   In Afghanistan, a country in the grips of famine, we have had to cut food deliveries to 10 million people. In places like Myanmar and Haiti, we have had to stop the construction of emergency shelters, which left almost a million people without a place to live, exposed to extreme weather and natural disasters.   In Nigeria, we could only reach 2 per cent of women in urgent need of sexual and reproductive health services and gender-based violence prevention.   We cannot allow this trend to continue into next year. That’s why today – on behalf of more than 1,900 humanitarian partners, the majority of them local and national NGOs – we are urging donors to fully fund our appeal for US$46.4 billion.   This money will provide a lifeline to 181 million people in 72 countries – men, women and children whose lives have been shattered by war, climate change, economic hardship and other disasters.   Although the amount we’re asking for is less than last year, this does not mean the global humanitarian situation has improved. It means we have had to focus our efforts on the people who face the greatest threat to their lives.   Faced with cuts, we have had to get creative, working tirelessly to prepare robust, evidence-based appeals, anchored in in-depth analyses. Thanks to this work, we know exactly what needs to be done.   First, more support than ever will need to be channelled through local and national partners to ensure that humanitarian action is truly grounded in people’s priorities. In Mozambique, I met women going door to door to speak with survivors of the world’s most powerful cyclone. These women understood the needs on the ground and were able to respond with speed and flexibility to ever shifting priorities. We must do even more to empower groups like this.   Second, we need to step up efforts to prepare communities for disaster. Anticipatory action not only protects lives; it reduces the financial cost of humanitarian action, allowing us to do more with less.   Third, we must prioritize humanitarian diplomacy if we want to get life-saving aid into countries where armed groups and bureaucratic barriers have cut off tens of millions of people.   Having just returned from COP28, and before that from some of the countries worst hit by climate shocks in East and Southern Africa, I want to end with a word about the climate crisis.   As humanitarians working on the frontlines of the world’s disaster zones, we know the future that scientists warned us about has arrived. Our planet is now hotter than it has been for at least 12,000 years. Human activity has pushed the planet into a new age – an age of fire, heat, flood and drought unlike any humanity has faced.   This year we saw record-breaking heat supercharge natural disasters and extreme weather planet wide.   In Libya, flash floods killed at least 4,000 people, with thousands still missing, and displaced more than 40,000 people. In Canada, wildfires burned an area of forest roughly the size of Syria.   So far this year climate and weather-related disasters affected more than 44 million people, causing more than 18,000 deaths.   The climate crisis is also turbocharging the world’s existing humanitarian crises, plunging people already reeling from disaster into even greater depths of misery.   The humanitarian community is doing everything it can to respond. We are providing immediate, on-the-ground support to the world’s most marginalized and affected. We’re finding ways to support longer term resilience even as we provide life-saving assistance. And we’re delivering fast, effective assistance through our pooled funds to local organizations operating in the most fragile places.   But the pace and scale of change is rapidly outstripping our ability to respond, stretching an overburdened system to breaking point.   Our message is clear: there is no humanitarian solution to the climate crisis. Unless we address the root causes of this crisis by taking aggressive steps to mitigate climate change and build resilience, the humanitarian system will be overwhelmed.   We have been warned about what awaits us should we fail to act:   Within a little more than 20 years, more than 1.6 billion people could be exposed to severe and extreme drought. That’s four times today’s number. And the number of people living in ‘very high’ crisis risk countries will roughly triple.   Given this nightmare scenario, it is imperative that donors support resilience and climate adaptation alongside humanitarian relief. The money for the transition is clearly there. Last year G20 governments spent a record $1.4 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies.   This is 30 times more than what we need to fund this year’s humanitarian appeal. That fact alone should give us pause.   This year’s global humanitarian overview paints a picture of a world plagued by multiple, escalating, and interconnected crises. Among them a spiralling climate emergency that is adding more fuel to the fire.   Yet it also paints a picture of a humanitarian community that has grown more skilled, more efficient and faster at reaching people in their time of greatest need.   And so I would ask you for a moment to imagine what might be possible if this community received the funds it needed. Imagine how many more millions of people we could reach, how many more we could help to rebuild and repair lives upended by the world’s disasters. This is the world I want to see us build together. And I know you do too.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024/ http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/13-emergencies-need-more-attention-support-2024 http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/2024-looms-increasingly-bleak-children-affected-armed-conflicts-and-disasters-unicef http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/launch-2024-humanitarian-appeal Visit the related web page
	View more stories