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	COVID-19: Incomes have stopped overnight, for many that immediately threatens being able to eat by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)   May 2020   The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to be a global socio-economic earthquake. It will be felt acutely in the world's conflict zones, where millions are already coping with little or no health care, food, water and electricity, precarious livelihoods, volatile prices and destroyed infrastructure.   Much-needed public health measures like lockdowns and curfews make it difficult or impossible for many people to provide for themselves and their families. Small shops are shuttered. Cafes sit empty. Street vendors have lost their passing trade.   Over time, levels of hunger, malnutrition and illness and stress linked to economic problems could soar; as global and local supply chains are disrupted notably for food, while markets for labour, goods and services will be weakened by reduced supply and demand.   Failing to address the secondary impact of COVID-19 on food security and livelihoods now, will inevitably lead to negative consequences on health and protection of people living in conflict-affected and fragile countries, in the short and longer term.   Deep humanitarian needs will worsen, and new ones will emerge if the international community doesn't factor socio-economic aftershocks into our response. Authorities and local responders must be supported now to ensure people's lives, livelihoods and food security are protected.   The hardest hit will be households already food insecure, informal labourers, displaced populations (notably living outside of camps), and those dependent on markets for their food consumption. But we will also see communities of people who were otherwise relatively resilient, needing assistance both during and after the current crisis. This crisis presents a huge risk to hard-won development gains.   Food systems will be particularly vulnerable during this crisis. The pandemic is disrupting agricultural seasons across the world as people struggle to access inputs such as quality seeds. This in combination with broken market links and access both at the global and local level; food price fluctuations; and weakened purchasing power of vulnerable households will quickly take their toll.   Increases in malnutrition linked to the COVID-19 crisis, are expected to be rapid and far reaching, affecting first the most vulnerable groups: children under five years, pregnant and lactating women, elderly, etc, making them more at risk of illness, and later becoming a concern for the whole population.   While developed countries are unveiling massive financial aid packages to support unemployed and small and medium-size businesses, governments of conflict-affected countries often will not have this capability. Social protection systems, including financial safety nets and food subsidies, are either non-existent, exclude some of the most vulnerable and marginalised, or existing finances will be focused public health efforts.   Where governments in conflict-affected and fragile countries are able to roll out social protection measures, the complex setting could slow or prevent these measures from reaching everyone.   The international community must respond and allocate resources to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, it is essential that existing humanitarian activities in relation to food security and nutrition continue; social protection programmes, both formal and informal, must be reinforced, including the use and scaling up of cash support where possible; and farmers and livestock owners must be supported to continue their activities, store their produce, and connect to consumers.   http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/press-release/international-red-cross-red-crescent-movement-appeals-3-1-billion-swiss-francs-3-19-billion-us-dollars-curb-covid-19s-spread-assist-worlds-vulnerable-amid-p/ Visit the related web page
	Don't divert funding from humanitarian crises by UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)   Apr. 2020   Dozens of countries in humanitarian crisis are now being hit by COVID-19, leading to heightened mobilization efforts. But it is crucial that the funding for this scale-up be additional funding to the Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19 rather than diverting from ongoing humanitarian operations that are keeping tens of millions of people alive.   This year, we aim to help 109 million of the world's most vulnerable people with life-saving support. That includes food, malnutrition treatment, cholera, measles and polio prevention, emergency education and protection. If funding for these efforts is diverted, lives will be lost.   Here we highlight 10 crises that the international community cannot neglect.   Ongoing crisis in Afghanistan   This year, 9.4 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian and protection assistance, up from 6.3 million in 2019. Growing vulnerability is linked to ongoing conflict, which has prevented any recovery from taking hold. Since 2012, some 4 million people have been displaced, many of them living in informal settlements, with few to no services. Acute malnutrition levels are above the emergency threshold in 25 of the country's provinces.   Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous countries on earth to be a humanitarian, with 41 deaths, 65 injuries and 75 abductions of humanitarian personnel in 2019. Despite these risks, the humanitarian community reached more than 90 per cent of the country's districts with some level of assistance in 2019. This year, humanitarian organizations aim to assist more than 7 million people with emergency, protection or recovery assistance, requiring $733 million. So far, the appeal is just 5 per cent funded.   Malnutrition and hunger in Haiti   Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic reaching Haiti, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the country was at a record high. Some 4.6 million people - more than 40 per cent of the population - require urgent support. The political and socioeconomic crisis that led to what Haitians call peyi lok - a country on lockdown - last year significantly reduced access to food for the poorest households. This insecurity has prevented many organizations from delivering essential services and supplies.   The number of Haitians facing severe acute food insecurity has increased from 2.6 million to 4.1 million people, and of those 1.2 million are facing emergency levels of hunger.   Malnutrition among children has increased as well, with 2.1 per cent of boys and girls in the country facing severe acute malnutrition. The crisis has also further weakened the country's healthcare and education systems. This has heightened the risk of gang recruitment, physical abuse, trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, and gender-based violence. All of these conditions will likely be made much worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.   Locust crisis in the Greater Horn of Africa   The Greater Horn of Africa was hit by a desert locust crisis earlier this year, and the situation remains extremely alarming, with new locust swarms forming in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Desert locusts are the most destructive migratory pest in the world, with the potential to lead to increased hunger and poverty levels in an already deeply food-insecure region. Swarms are escalating just as the agricultural season approaches.   Among the most affected countries in the Greater Horn: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and South Sudan - over 25 million people are severely food-insecure.   In response, Governments, with support from FAO, are conducting massive aerial and ground control operations, with hundreds of thousands of acres covered. So far, FAO has raised $112.6 million of the $153 million appeal to quell the crisis. But the impact of COVID-19 is already being felt on the locust response, with deployment of surge personnel delayed and possible pesticide supply chain ruptures. Governments and FAO are doing all they can to maintain and ramp-up operations at this time of critical need. Funding is urgently required to both fight the infestation and support livelihoods.   Insecurity, protection and food crisis in the Central Sahel   In recent years, the Central Sahel, which encompasses the border areas of Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger, has been wracked by violence, which killed 43,000 people last year and displaced more than 1 million. The region is already highly vulnerable, with pervasive poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. The violence has left hundreds of health centres and schools out of use.   The UN and partners are working to support The Central Sahel on several fronts - from finding solutions to bring an end to the violence to providing humanitarian and development assistance to save lives and rebuild communities. However, the $1.1 billion Humanitarian Response plan is under 10 per cent funded. With COVID-19 spreading in the Central Sahel - which has the world's weakest health system - WFP has sounded the alarm that this is likely to be what WFP calls 'a crisis on top of a crisis'.   Conflict and displacement in the Lake Chad Basin   Ten years of conflict in the Lake Chad Basin, triggered by the Boko Haram violence in north-eastern Nigeria, shows no signs of abating. Millions of people have been subjected to violence, forced displacement, abuse and violations. The violence has spilled over from Nigeria into Cameroon's far North, the west of Chad and south-eastern Niger - areas that were already struggling from climate change-induced shocks as well as poverty and underdevelopment. More than 4 million people will be severely food insecure across the Lake Chad Basin this year, and 400,000 children are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition.   The UN and partners are working with communities to help protect civilians and ensure that life-saving support can reach them. forts behind protecting Civilians continue to come under attacks, with thousands of civilians having been killed or abducted, thousands of children forcibly recruited into armed groups, and women and girls sexually assaulted and abused.   The Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh and Myanmar   More than two years ago, some 745,000 mostly Rohingya people fled persecution, discrimination and targeted violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar, taking shelter in Bangladesh. Their flight followed an upsurge in cycles of persecution, violence and abuse, with villages torched, women and girls gang-raped and thousands of people killed.   Most of those who fled settled in and around Cox's Bazar, which became the world's largest refugee camp. Now, following successive waves of violence in Myanmar, some 855,000 Rohingya are in congested camps, where the Government and humanitarian organizations have been providing them with essential services.   The Rohingya remain stateless, dependent on aid, and with few opportunities to rebuild their lives. The Government of Bangladesh and humanitarian agencies are improving medical capacity and assistance for the camp population, but the crowded conditions in the camps make the refugees highly vulnerable to a COVID-19 outbreak. As of April 2020, the Joint Response Plan to support the Rohingya is just 13 per cent funded.   Across the border, the humanitarian situation for Rohingya communities in Myanmar's Rakhine State remains deeply concerning. Some 130,000 Rohingya are still confined in camps after nearly eight years, and Rohingya communities outside the camps remain highly vulnerable and at risk of violence. At the same time, conflict between the Myanmar armed forces and the Arakan Army continues in Rakhine and Chin States, with civilian casualties increasing.   Ten years of conflict in Syria   The Syria crisis has entered its tenth year, with more than 11 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and a further 5.6 million who have fled the country. An upsurge in violence in Idleb Province in the north-west caused 950,000 people to be displaced between December 2019 and early March 2020, and ongoing low-level violence continues to impact civilians in the north-east.   Many of the displaced in Idleb are living in overcrowded settlement sites with inadequate shelter and a lack of essential supplies. As a result of the ongoing conflict, 8 in 10 Syrians now live below the poverty line and many are resorting to harmful coping strategies due to limited economic opportunities. In the face of these challenges, humanitarians reach on average 6 million people per month with essential aid.   COVID-19 has now taken hold in Syria, leading to huge concerns across the UN system of its impact in a country where only half of the public hospitals and less than half of the primary health-care centres are functional and where millions live in overcrowded conditions. The World Health Organization and partners are doing all they can to prepare health facilities and raise awareness of COVID-19.   The world's largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen   Yemen remains the world's largest life-saving operation despite competing global priorities due to COVID-19. Eighty per cent of Yemen's population - or 24 million people - require assistance or protection, with half of the population in acute need and only half of the country's health facilities fully functional. Every month, humanitarian agencies help more than 13 million Yemenis. But without immediate funding, more than 30 critical UN programmes will start to close in coming weeks. These cuts will affect millions of people, and the lives of some 75,000 severely malnourished children are hanging in the balance.   Funding gaps will also mean scaling back water and sanitation programmes by one third just as the threat of COVID-19 builds. This will also put 5 million people at risk of contracting cholera or other waterborne diseases.   Decades of crisis in Democratic Republic of the Congo   A complex crisis in the DRC means that 15.6 million people need humanitarian assistance to survive. Vulnerability is linked not only to conflict and intercommunal violence in several regions, but also to endemic poverty, socioeconomic difficulties, poor governance, lack of essential services and poor health infrastructure.   The country has a high prevalence of malnutrition, food insecurity, measles and cholera - and continues to work to contain a 20-month long devastating Ebola virus outbreak.   Humanitarian agencies are navigating an exceptionally complex environment and continue to reach people in need in the DRC. Insecurity, logistical constraints, as well as funding gaps remain some of the challenges. The 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan called for $1.8 billion to help some 8 million people, but so far is only 8 per cent funded.   Economic and food security crisis in Southern Africa   COVID-19 has affected 13 countries across Southern Africa in a region where 15.6 million people are already food insecure and 16.5 million people live with HIV and AIDS. Particularly vulnerable are Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and Lesotho, where climate change-induced chronic drought, insecurity, fragile infrastructure and a massive economic slowdown are having major humanitarian repercussions.   In Zimbabwe alone, 7 million people now need emergency aid. Zimbabwe launched a $715 million Humanitarian Response Plan on 2 April 2020, seeking to reach 5.6 million people.   Meanwhile, Mozambique is experiencing drought in the south, slow recovery efforts from the devastation of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, as well as flooding and rapidly spiralling violence in the north. Persistent needs are not being met due to funding gaps.   So far, COVID-19 has hit 13 countries across Southern Africa. Control measures are being heightened at borders, but the pandemic will likely lead to more humanitarian need.   Across these crises, OCHA is mobilizing humanitarian funding, coordinating response, advocating for access and assistance to those most in need, sharing information on needs and priorities across the humanitarian sector, and sharing policy analysis and best practice.   http://unocha.exposure.co/ten-crises-to-remember-as-the-world-battles-covid19 http://crisisrelief.un.org/crises Visit the related web page
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