Despite facing extreme underfunding and escalating attacks, humanitarians provided a literal lifeline for millions of people around the world throughout the first months of 2025, in support of the communities they serve, and with local and national actors at the forefront of every response.
Around the world, communities continued to provide the first line of support for one another in times of crisis, from mutual aid efforts through the Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan to community-led kitchens in Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and solidarity shown by receiving communities to those fleeing violence whether within their own country or across borders. These efforts were supported by the work of local and national organizations who—despite having to restrict their services and reduce their presence—continued to deliver for those in urgent need. Acknowledging and supporting locally led humanitarian response is a critical component of the global Humanitarian Reset.
Since 2025 began, humanitarian partners—from local and national actors through to international non-governmental organizations (NGO) and United Nations entities—have saved lives and upheld the dignity of people impacted by crises, amid enormous challenges. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), following the explosion of violence in the east which displaced at least 660,000 people from January to March 2025, partners responded despite the extreme constraints, including acting early to anticipate a cholera outbreak, supported by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). In Myanmar, within one month of the devastating earthquakes which struck on 28 March 2025, humanitarian partners had reached at least 600,000 people with water, sanitation and hygiene support, nearly half a million people with food assistance, and more than 100,000 people with emergency shelter and essential household items. Partners in Myanmar also dispatched as mobile medical teams, delivering medical supplies, reuniting separated children with their families and supporting survivors of gender-based violence. Both the CERF and the Myanmar Humanitarian Fund rapidly disbursed allocations to support the response. In Sudan, after horrifying violence and insecurity engulfed Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps in April 2025 and forcing the displacement of over 400,000 people, humanitarian partners activated an operational response plan to reach new arrivals: between 4 and 8 May 2025, 335,000 people received emergency food assistance and 67,000 received emergency nutrition supplies. Across the border in Chad, UNHCR and its partners worked with authorities to authenticate the medical certificates of Sudanese refugee doctors so they could practice in Chad, providing them with a livelihood and the means to continue help people.
Empowering Sudanese refugee doctors
UNHCR and partners are working with the Chadian authorities to authenticate Sudanese refugees’ medical certificates to facilitate their integration into the local health system and continue to help their communities.
In Haiti, where violence has escalated dramatically and one in every eight children is displaced, humanitarian partners have provided safe spaces and psychosocial support for children in IDP sites and hard-to-reach areas of Port-au-Prince and delivered 4.2 million hot meals to almost 450,000 students, almost 68 per cent of which were prepared with locally sourced products. In Yemen, which remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, 134 humanitarian actors supported an average of 4 million people per month with life-saving protection and multisectoral assistance in the first quarter of 2025.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
At the Jean Marie César IDP site, UNICEF Haiti and its partners provide vital psychosocial support to children displaced by escalating violence across multiple neighbourhoods around Port-au-Prince. UNICEF/Herold Joseph
UNICEF/Herold JosephThe Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster supported displaced communities in 27 countries, delivering life-saving assistance under some of the most challenging conditions. In Ukraine, CCCM partners coordinated the movement of over 83,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), ensuring access to essential services and safety. In Burkina Faso and Yemen, assessments identified critical service gaps, enabling targeted interventions to prevent violence—particularly against displaced women and girls.
The ability of humanitarians to deliver when enabled to do so was showcased during the ceasefire in Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), between 19 January and 18 March 2025. During this time, partners delivered winterization kits to 60,000 children (compared to 10,000 prior to the ceasefire); supported 25 UN-subsidized bakeries (compared to 5 before the ceasefire); and brought 78,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza (compared to 23,000 prior to the ceasefire). This was followed by the imposition by Israel of an 11-week total aid blockade, during which humanitarian partners continued to deliver aid under the most difficult and complex circumstances. In May 2025, over two days, around 299,000 daily meals were prepared and delivered by 16 partners through about 70 kitchens. In the same month, about 500,000 medical treatments, consultations and interventions were conducted by 69 Health Cluster partners across Gaza. Despite the restrictions imposed on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) by the Israeli Knesset laws, the misinformation and disinformation circulated about it, and the unprecedented killing and injury of its staff and their families during the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, UNRWA has continued to be the backbone of the humanitarian operation and deliver essential services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, as well as across each of its fields of operations.
Gaza, Occupied Palestininan Territory
In Khan Younis, UNRWA social workers—who are also part of the communities they serve—organized recreational and psychosocial support activities for children, as well as awareness workshops on how to support children in times of conflict for their parents.
UNRWAThe tireless efforts of humanitarian partners to deliver to people in crisis in a coordinated and principled manner in the first months of 2025 highlight the ability of the humanitarian system to assist and protect people in the world’s gravest emergencies, even in the most adverse circumstances. As global geopolitics shift, it is vital that a movement is built that supports principled humanitarian action, delivered by partners who have the experience, expertise and ability to reach people in most urgent need. This is precisely what the Humanitarian Reset aims to accomplish, grounded in the work of local and national partners who know their communities best, and leveraging the tools, systems and capacities of the international humanitarian community in support of their efforts.
References
- Information provided directly by CCCM.