Global Humanitarian Overview 2023

Conflict continues to drive needs and severely impact humanitarian operations

Violent conflict continues to take a heavy toll on civilians. About 60 per cent of all observed conflicts worldwide were fought violently (204 out of 355), with the highest number of conflicts on the level of full-scale war taking place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Violence and conflict severely impact civilians, who continue to bear the brunt of attacks, especially when explosives are used in populated areas. In 2021, 89 per cent of all people harmed by explosive weapons in populated areas were civilians. Mines, improvised explosive devices and explosive remnants of war were responsible for 9,797 civilian casualties in 2021, an increase from 6,766 in 2020. The highest numbers were observed in the Syrian Arab Republic and Afghanistan. Damage to and destruction of homes, essential infrastructure and other civilian objects continue to compound civilian suffering.

Ukraine

Borodianka, Kyivska Oblast, Ukraine

A damaged building in Borodianka.

OCHA/Matteo Minasi

In 2021, conflict and violence caused 14.4 million displacements – the highest figure recorded. Some people were displaced more than once, when camps hosting IDPs came under attack. Countries such as Afghanistan, DRC, Ethiopia and Ukraine all experienced record numbers of displacement. For example, the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region led to at least 2.5 million people being newly displaced within their country. In 2022, the situation in Ukraine became one of the largest forced displacement crises since the Second World War.

Humanitarian operations are severely impacted by conflict, insecurity, attacks on infrastructure and humanitarian assets, and violence against humanitarian workers. Humanitarian access constraints continue, in addition to bureaucratic impediments and counter-terrorism and sanctions measures.

Hostilities have significantly impacted humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), DRC, Mali, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic and elsewhere. In Somalia and Yemen, conflict has contributed to restricting the movement of humanitarian personnel and supplies along main routes. Humanitarian access to the centre and north of Mali was impeded by fighting between non-State armed groups. In CAR, NGOs were forced to scale back or suspend their activities, and the increased use of explosive devices has hampered humanitarian movement and civilians’ access to assistance and services.

In 2021, 268 attacks against aid workers were recorded, resulting in the deaths of 141 humanitarian workers, compared with 117 killed the previous year. Of the aid workers who died, 98 per cent were national staff and more than half were staff of national NGOs. Attacks on medical personnel and facilities continued, with 219 health-care workers killed and 493 health-care facilities destroyed, damaged or used for military purposes in 17 countries during 2021. This marks a significant increase from 158 health-care workers killed the previous year.

Children remain especially vulnerable. In 2021, the UN verified nearly 24,000 grave violations against children, affecting more than 19,000 children. Violations include killing and maiming, recruitment, the use of children as soldiers, sexual violence and abductions, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals. The number of recorded attacks on schools and hospitals increased by 5 per cent in 2021. The persistent military use of schools and disregard for children’s education and health, coupled with large-scale school closures, are depriving children of their right to education and jeopardizing their future.

Aid in Action

Early investments, long-term impacts – Addressing the unique needs of the youngest children

Bangladesh
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Many of the children living in camps in Cox’s Bazar, especially those under age 5, have spent their entire lives displaced. The Play to Learn project encourages playful learning and nurturing care. Its main characters, Noor and Aziz, are 6-year-old Rohingya twin Muppets and the first representation that most Rohingya children will have ever seen of themselves.

Young children experience conflict and displacement differently than older children or adults. Research shows that in the first few years of a child’s life, the human brain undergoes its most active period of growth and development. It forms more than 1 million new neural connections every second, laying the foundation for lifelong learning, health and productivity.

For the more than 71 million young children who experience their early years in conflict or crisis situations, an abundance of evidence shows that they can suffer from disrupted cognitive development, with devastating and often irreversible impacts. This threatens to produce a cycle of instability and poverty, affecting individual recovery as well as larger community goals of social cohesion, resilience and equity.

However, this result is not inevitable. Evidence shows that a set of multi-cluster interventions, grouped together as Early Childhood Development (ECD), can counter these negative impacts. ECD programming includes the specific integrated programmes needed by young children in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, protection and education. It also includes specialized support to caregivers so that they have the capacity to appropriately and playfully engage with young children and provide consistent nurturing care.

ECD is a cost-effective investment, generating returns across sectors, including greater educational attainment, improved cognitive abilities, higher wages earned as an adult, reduced violence and fewer depressive symptoms. Despite this evidence, these interventions remain dramatically underfunded. Globally, ECD accounts for just over 2 per cent of humanitarian assistance. With greater investment, ECD can stretch limited resources further by providing enabling progress on issues such as gender equity, mental health and livelihoods in addition to direct returns for children. There is no time like the present to invest in their future.

References

  1. Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, Conflict Barometer 2021.
  2. Ibid. Eleven full-scale wars continued; five limited wars escalated to full-scale wars in 2021 in Cameroon, CAR, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sudan.
  3. Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), .
  4. Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, .
  5. Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, S/2021/423.
  6. Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, .
  7. IDMC, Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) 2022.
  8. UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2021.
  9. United Nations, Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (S/2022/381), 10 May 2022.
  10. Humanitarian Outcomes/Aid Worker Security Database, Figures at a Glance (July), and https://aidworkersecurity.org/.
  11. United Nations, Report of the UN Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (S/2022/381), 10 May 2022.
  12. Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, A/76/871 S/2022/493, 23 June 2022. Afghanistan, DRC, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Somalia, Syria and Yemen had the highest number of verified grave violations.
  13. Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, A/76/871 S/2022/493, 23 June 2022.
  14. Developed in partnership with Sesame Workshop.
  15. Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, InBrief: The Science of Early Childhood Development, 2007.
  16. Nores and Barnett, “Benefits of early childhood interventions across the world: (Under) Investing in the very young,” 2010. Gertler, et al., “Labor market returns to an early childhood stimulation intervention in Jamaica,” 2014. Black, et al., “Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course,” 2016. Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), “Encouraging early childhood stimulation from parents and caregivers to improve child development,” 2020. Walker, et al., “Cognitive, psychosocial, and behaviour gains at age 31 years from the Jamaica early childhood stimulation trial,” 2021.
  17. Moving Minds Alliance, Analysis of international aid levels for early childhood services in crisis contexts, 2020.