In the first six months of 2024,humanitarian needs in multiple countries intensified, while new crises hit others, causing global humanitarian requirements to grow from US$46.4 billion in January 2024 to the current $48.7 billion. Conflict and violence drove rising displacement and deepened suffering in contexts such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Myanmar and Sudan, while climate shocks—including floods, cyclones and drought—caused loss of lives and livelihoods in multiple countries. New appeals and plans were launched in Bangladesh, Burundi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) now targeting 188 million people across 72 countries through 41 coordinated plans.
Yet, despite rising needs and harrowing decisions made by humanitarians about who, and what, to include in 2024 appeals, funding is dire. Some $7.9 billion had been received against the GHO requirements by the end of May 2024, which is 18 per cent lower than the amount received at the same time in 2023 ($9.8 billion), and just 16 per cent of the requirements for this year.
This is particularly concerning given that humanitarians worked intensively at the end of 2023 to more tightly define the 2024 appeals, meaning that funding shortfalls have directly cut into the ability of partners to meet the most acute needs of people in crisis worldwide. Cuts in food assistance due to underfunding are leaving people at risk of starvation in places such as Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen. Women and girls’ ability to access sexual and reproductive health care and services for gender-based violence have been compromised in multiple crises. Children in Mali, OPT, Syria and other countries are being deprived of their future due to education funding shortfalls, whilst people are left facing heighted risk of disease due to under-resourcing of water, sanitation and hygiene services in countries such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The consequences have been particularly hard-felt in the nine most underfunded crises: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, DRC, Haiti, Honduras, Mali, Myanmar and Sudan. Between 2019 and 2023, funding coverage for these crises was, on average, 15 percent lower than for the rest of the Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs). And there are direct repercussions: the percentage of people reached with assistance and protection under these countries’ plans and appeals has been an average of 16 per cent lower than others.
But it was not only underfunding that impeded humanitarian operations in the first half of 2024—ferocious conflicts, attacks against aid workers and essential services and access impediments took a devastating toll on humanitarians’ ability to reach people in desperate need. From OPT to Sudan to Myanmar and beyond, the first half of 2024 was characterized by extreme challenges, from attacks against health, education and water and sanitation facilities that left millions of people without access to the services they need to survive and thrive, to the killing, injury and detention of aid workers.
And yet—even faced with enormous obstacles—the humanitarian community has rallied to bring relief to people who need it most, building around the incredible solidarity and support provided by communities and community-based organizations. In the first five months of the year, humanitarians were able to reach at least 39.7 million people with some form of humanitarian assistance, with much of this delivered by national and local partners. In Ukraine, for example, some 500 organizations were part of the humanitarian response in the first quarter of 2024: 80 per cent of them local and national actors.
However, as the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, famously said: “there are no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems.” Political action is imperative to address the conflicts that are unfolding with horrifying consequences for civilians, and there must be a global recommitment to upholding the laws of war. Political commitment is also required to tackle the ever-deepening global climate crisis, which is already having profound humanitarian consequences, as was further evidenced during the first half of 2024. And there is a need for Governments and development actors to redouble their efforts to reach people who are left the furthest behind.
Whilst these solutions are sought, there must be renewed global solidarity—building on the funding already committed this year—to fully fund humanitarian appeals worldwide and to protect the aid workers who are delivering to people in need every day. As this mid-year update of the GHO 2024 highlights, the cost of inaction could literally be deadly.
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