Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 by UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) 9:20am 8th Dec, 2024   Dec. 2024    In 2025, 305 million people around the world will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection, as multiple crises escalate with devastating consequences for the people affected by them.    In 2025, United Nations agencies and 1500 humanitarian partner organizations are appealing for $47 billion to assist nearly 190 million people across 72 countries meet their urgent needs.    The Global Humanitarian Overview reflects intensive work by humanitarian partners to prioritize assistance and protection for the people and places who need it most.    In 2024, despite numerous obstacles, over 1,500 humanitarian partners delivered life-sustaining and life-saving assistance to nearly 116 million people through country-specific plans and appeals.    Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 in Geneva:    'We are here as the humanitarian movement to launch the Global Humanitarian Overview for 2025. In 2025, 305 million people will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection. Behind that number are 305 million lives, 305 million humans, 305 million different stories.    The main culprits for this staggering number are clear – and they are both man-made. Conflicts distinguished by the callous disregard for human life, lack of respect for humanitarian law, and too often the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid are taking place in Sudan, in Gaza, in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sahel, Myanmar, Haiti and many other places.    The link between conflict and humanitarian needs is unequivocal: four out of every five civilian fatalities this year have occurred in countries with a humanitarian appeal or plan. And it is the youngest in our societies – the people we are meant to be protecting and nurturing – are among the worst affected.    Grave violations against children in conflict have reached unprecedented levels.    Sudan alone, where I was last week, witnessed a 480 per cent increase in children hit by conflict between 2022 and 2023. And now, one in every five kids is living in, or fleeing, a conflict zone.    The second man-made cause of these crises is the global climate emergency. 2024 will be the hottest year on record. We have seen devastating floods in the Sahel, East Africa and Europe; drought in Southern Africa and the Americas; and heatwaves and wildfires across the globe.    But the damage goes much further than that caused by the extreme weather events.    The climate crisis is also wreaking havoc on agriculture and food systems, it undermines livelihoods and deepens food insecurity – droughts have caused 65 per cent of agricultural economic damage in the past 15 years.    In the past year, the humanitarian movement was given an impossible job of meeting the needs of almost 190 million with less than 45 per cent of the funds required. That shortfall has a cost. People pay for that shortfall with their lives, their safety and their health.    The cuts to food and nutrition pushed millions towards starvation and famine. The gaps in water, sanitation and health care increased the risk of disease. Women and girls bore the brunt of cuts to midwifery, newborn care and essential support to prevent and respond to gender-based violence - the epidemic of gender-based violence.    People are paying in drops in life expectancy, six years below the global average, vaccination rates 20 per cent below the global average, maternal mortality rates double the global average, and primary school completion rates 80 per cent lower than the global average.    I know the money is out there. I know we can do better. I refuse to believe that we, as a global community, are too distracted to find the solidarity that we need. I urge more donors to step forward to provide the funding that we desperately need, to reach those in the greatest need.    Nothing will do more to reduce humanitarian needs than real sustained action to stop conflicts. In 2025, we need to see much more intensified effort to end wars and secure peace; to tackle climate change while supporting those who will need to adapt to a shock-filled future; and for everyone to put their shoulder to the wheel and lift people out of crises with more investment in vulnerable communities.    So much more needs to be done to protect civilians and humanitarian workers and uphold international humanitarian law. 2024 was one of the most brutal years in recent history for civilians caught up in conflict.    In Gaza, 44,000 lives lost since 7 October, and 100,000 more injured. Nine out of ten people are projected to face acute food insecurity or worse between now and April.    People in Sudan are facing the worst food insecurity in the country’s history, half the Sudanese population facing crisis levels of hunger. The spectre, once again, of famine. 11 million displaced. The health care system and public services decimated, outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.    This has been the deadliest year on record to be a humanitarian worker. We have lost over 280 friends and colleagues their courage and their humanity met with bombs and bullets. It reflects a disregard for international humanitarian law, and a disregard for civilian life.    Humanitarian law is designed to ensure a minimum of humanity in conflicts, even in war. Instead, we see war being used to justify massive human suffering. This is unacceptable.    We need to see all parties to conflict comply with international humanitarian law. We need to see Member States demand that they comply, and use the levers available to them, including diplomacy, political and financial pressure, and more responsible arms transfers to ensure that they comply'.    Ms. Edem Wosornu, OCHA Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025, Nairobi launch event:    'In 2025, 305 million people will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection. 305 million people. What makes these staggeringly high numbers so unconscionable, is that the two main drivers are unfortunately both man-made.    The first is conflict. In 2024, we have seen the continuation of devastating wars in Gaza and Sudan – both marked by a callous and blatant disregard for human life, a lack of respect for international law, and the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid. Violence and unresolved conflicts have also continued to rupture people’s lives in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, the DRC, the Sahel, Myanmar, Haiti and many other places.    I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of visiting all these countries in the last year. Unfortunate because of the wars, the conflict and the pain and pleasure because these are beautiful countries with beautiful people.    The link between this conflict and humanitarian needs is unequivocal: four out of every five civilian fatalities worldwide this year have occurred in countries with a humanitarian appeal or plan. By mid-2024, 123 million people had been forcibly displaced by conflict and violence, making it the twelfth consecutive year in which this number has increased.    And the youngest in our societies – the people we are meant to be protecting and nurturing – are among the worst hit. Children everywhere suffering through this devastation.    Grave violations against children in conflict have reached unprecedented levels, with Sudan alone witnessing a 480 per cent increase between 2022 and 2023. One in every five children is now living in, or fleeing, a conflict zone.    The second driver is the global climate emergency. The world is perilously close to reaching 1.5°C in warming. But the devastating humanitarian effects of climate change are already here. Everyone is affected, but the least responsible are shouldering the heaviest burden.    2024 is expected to be the hottest year on record. It has been marked by yet more extreme weather-related disasters. We have seen devastating floods in the Sahel, East Africa and Europe; drought in Southern Africa and the Americas; and heatwaves and wildfires across the globe.    But the damage goes far beyond the destruction of extreme weather events. The climate crisis is also wreaking havoc on agriculture and food systems, undermining livelihoods and deepening food insecurity – droughts, for instance, have caused 65 per cent of agricultural economic damages in the past 15 years.    And in the absence of meaningful action to end and prevent these conflicts and slow or halt global warming, people are facing increasingly prolonged crises. Many of the longest appeals are here in Africa – in Central African Republic, Chad, the DRC, Somalia and Sudan.    The longer humanitarian crises last, the worse the prospects for affected people. Data we have been tracking since 2011 reveal that in crisis affected countries, life expectancies are six years below the global average; vaccination rates are 20 per cent below the global average; maternal mortality rates are double the global average; and primary school completion rates that are just 10 per cent compared to 90 per cent globally.    The result of all these factors means that in 2025, the UN and its partner organizations are appealing for $47 billion to assist nearly 190 million people across some 73 countries worldwide and we are working with 1,500 partners globally to advance this effort.    For the second consecutive year, this appeal reflects work by the UN and its humanitarian partners to prioritize assistance and protection for the people and places who need it the most. Nevertheless, we will have no chance of meeting the aims of these prioritized plans unless we receive the funding that we need.    Despite similar efforts in 2024, humanitarians were given the impossible job of meeting the needs of nearly 198 million people with less than 45 per cent of required funding. People paid for this shortfall in funds with their lives, their safety their health.    Cuts to food and nutrition assistance pushed millions towards starvation and famine. Gaps in water, sanitation and health care increased the risk of disease. And women and girls bore the brunt of cuts to midwifery, obstetric and newborn care, and essential support to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.    We are grateful for all the generous support from our donors. However, in 2025, we are calling on donors to dig deeper, and provide full and flexible funding for the humanitarian appeals in this Global Humanitarian Overview.    We are also calling for more support from the international community on humanitarian access to those in need, and on the protection of civilians and the aid workers who serve them.    We have heard this all too many times – civilians are bearing the brunt of a record number of armed conflicts, marked by blatant disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights law.    Civilians have been killed and injured in intolerable numbers; homes, hospitals and essential services have been razed to the ground; and millions have been displaced.    Meanwhile, severe humanitarian access impediments have subjected millions to crisis levels of food insecurity. It has also now been the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers. Our colleagues – most of them local staff – have been attacked, killed, injured and kidnapped with almost total impunity. This is unacceptable – this must stop.    We once again demand compliance with international humanitarian law, and call on States to hold parties to their obligations, including accountability.    We are also calling for greater international action to end wars, to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, and development action to help lift them out of crisis.    For our part as humanitarian actors, we will continue with courage and determination despite the many challenges to provide life-sustaining and life-saving assistance to people around the world'.    # Global Humanitarian Overview 2025:    Civilians are bearing the brunt of a record number of armed conflicts marked by blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, including mass atrocities.    2024 was one of the most brutal years in recent history for civilians caught in conflicts and, should urgent action not be taken, 2025 could be even worse. By mid-2024, nearly 123 million people had been forcibly displaced by conflict and violence, marking the twelfth consecutive annual increase.    The global food security crisis is staggering, affecting over 280 million people daily as acute hunger spreads and intensifies. Violence and displacement further prevent food production and block access to vital markets. And around one in every five children in the world—approximately 400 million—are living in or fleeing conflict zones.    In 2024, four out of every five civilian fatalities in conflict worldwide occurred in countries with a humanitarian plan or appeal, with lack of respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) continuing to be the single most important challenge for protecting people in armed conflicts, according to the ICRC.    Grave violations against children have reached unprecedented levels in multiple conflicts, with Sudan alone witnessing a 480 per cent rise from 2022 to 2023. Over the past year, more women and children were killed in Gaza than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, while in Ukraine an average of at least 16 children have been killed or injured every week since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.    The number of United Nations verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence was 50 per cent higher in 2023 than the year before. Meanwhile, total global military expenditure has surged, reaching US$2.4 trillion in 2023.    The global climate emergency: The world is perilously close to 1.5ºC warming and the climate crisis is increasing the frequency and severity of disasters, with devastating consequences for the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.    It is expected that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, marked by floods in the Sahel, East Africa and Europe, drought in Southern Africa and the Americas, and heatwaves across the globe. In 2023, 363 weather-related disasters were recorded, affecting at least 93.1 million people and causing thousands of deaths.    In the same year, disasters triggered some 26.4 million internal displacements/movements with over three quarters caused by weather events. Climate change is worsening disasters, making events like the devastating Horn of Africa drought (2020 to 2023) at least 100 times more likely, and increasing the likelihood and destructive power of major hurricanes, such as Hurricane Beryl in 2024, the strongest June hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.    The climate crisis is wreaking havoc on food systems, with droughts causing over 65 per cent of agricultural economic damages in the past 15 years, worsening food insecurity, especially in areas reliant on smallholder farming.    Conflict can also contribute directly to climate change, with researchers estimating that emissions from the first 120 days of the conflict in Gaza exceeded the annual emissions of 26 individual countries and territories. Meanwhile, the top 30 oil and gas companies (excluding those based in poorer countries) have recorded a combined $400 billion per year in free cash flow since the 2015 Paris agreement.    In the absence of meaningful action to end and prevent conflicts and halt global warming, people are facing increasingly prolonged crises. The longer a humanitarian crisis lasts, the bleaker the prospects become for affected people.    Addressing the global food crisis will be a key response priority going into 2025.    The global food security crisis is staggering, affecting over 280 million people daily. Acute hunger has spread and intensified alarmingly over the past five years, as evidenced by the Famine Review Committee being activated five times for a single context in one year—an unprecedented event for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative. Violence and displacement are wreaking havoc, preventing food production and access to vital markets.    The outlook is dire, with acute food insecurity projected to worsen across 16 hunger hotspots from November 2024 to May 2025. Worryingly, warnings of deteriorating food security often fail to translate into increased humanitarian support.    Financing for food, cash, and emergency agriculture is misaligned with the escalating needs. If urgent resources are not mobilized, the world risks a catastrophic rise in hunger and malnutrition, exposing millions to preventable diseases and potentially reversing hard-earned development gains. The time to act is now.    People in crisis need political action to end wars, climate action to help them prepare for a shock-filled future and development action to lift them out of crisis    With more State-involved wars today than at any other point since 1946, and the horrifying toll on civilians rising each day, immediate political action is required to end conflicts and uphold the laws of war. Climate action is equally urgent, requiring swift, decisive work to reverse the global climate crisis and ensure that climate financing reaches those most at-risk of catastrophe.    As this year’s GHO highlights, a growing number of countries are experiencing more frequent and severe disasters—these are countries that should be on a development trajectory, but risk facing repeated crises without global support to help their communities adapt and prepare.    And there is an urgent need for Governments, development actors and donors—including international financial institutions—to continue providing development funding and financing in fragile and complex settings, to make funding available for locally led development, and to prioritize development investment in the sectors that humanitarians are so frequently called to address, including education, food security, health, and water, sanitation and hygiene.    Advocating respect for international humanitarian law, and accountability for violations, is crucial to protecting civilians and aid workers—who face unprecedented attacks—and to ensuring crisis-affected people can access the assistance, protection and services they require.    Flagrant violations of international humanitarian rights law, combined with insecurity and bureaucratic impediments, imperil the lives of people in need of assistance and the aid workers striving to help them.    In countries like Afghanistan, Yemen and the Sahel, bureaucratic impediments and counterterrorism and sanctions-related restrictions, further hinder the delivery of critical assistance by exposing humanitarian actors to legal and financial risks.    To deliver their mandate, it is imperative that humanitarians engage with all actors to negotiate access and deliver assistance and protection for civilians. This is particularly critical given that 90 per cent of people living in areas controlled by armed groups live in countries with humanitarian response plans.    Humanitarians and the services they provide have come under unprecedented attack.    2024 has been the most dangerous year for aid workers. Local aid workers—serving their own communities on the frontlines of conflict—are most exposed to violence. Between January and November 2024, 96 per cent of all aid workers killed, injured or kidnapped were national/local staff.    Attacks on medical personnel and facilities have also continued, with 2,135 conflict-related assaults on health facilities reported globally between January and October 2024—while attacks on education and military use of schools rose nearly 20 per cent in 2022 and 2023 compared to the previous two years.    Arrests and detentions of aid workers, though less well-documented, are a rapidly growing concern. Humanitarians are also encountering increasingly complex challenges from misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, especially within conflict settings.    Humanitarian action remains a lifeline for millions of people affected by crises, yet chronic underfunding continues to have devastating consequences. Cuts in food and nutrition assistance have pushed millions toward starvation and left some at risk of death    Underfunding and access constraints have drastically reduced food and nutrition support, leaving millions in need and facing acute hunger.    In Afghanistan, food assistance was scaled down so severely in 2024 that entire districts were left without aid. In Chad, insufficient funding and the steady inflow of refugees, among other drivers, have worsened food insecurity, with the number of people facing crisis-level hunger rising from 3.4 million to 4.6 million in 2024, with figures for 2025 expected to increase. Ethiopia’s cereal rations were cut by 20 per cent by some partners, while in Haiti, underfunding is likely to push 2 million people to even more critical levels of food insecurity.    In Syria, the World Food Programme (WFP) reduced monthly food assistance by 80 per cent, serving only one third of the severely food insecure population. To cope, more families are now selling properties, or sending children to work.    In Malawi, negligible funding meant that the agricultural sector could reach just four per cent of its target, despite agriculture’s potential to mitigate food insecurity. In South Sudan, funding shortfalls meant food assistance reached only 77 per cent of the target, with 90 per cent of people who were reached receiving half rations.    In Somalia, programme cuts reduced assistance from 6 months (end of 2023) to just 3 months, resulting in food consumption gaps for three quarters of the year.    Children facing acute malnutrition, whose lives and futures hang in the balance, are at risk due to underfunding and access constraints.    In the DRC, more than 220,000 children with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition under age five went untreated by the end of 2024 due to lack of resources.    In Nigeria, a lack of resources threatens shutting down nearly one third of the 813 facilities managing acute malnutrition by late 2024. In OPT, despite repeated attempts to scale nutrition programmes, only half of the acutely malnourished children targeted for treatment by 2024 will be reached.    Underfunding has decimated humanitarian health services in multiple countries.    In Yemen, the cholera response has been critically impacted by the closure of 165 oral rehydration centres and 33 diarrhoea treatment centres, leaving only 14 of the latter expected to remain operational beyond December 2024. In the DRC, emergency sexual and reproductive health services reached less than 30 per cent of women of childbearing age.    In Ethiopia, mobile health teams suspended operations in north-western Tigray region, due to underfunding. In Somalia, 116 health facilities closed in the first half of 2024, depriving hundreds of thousands of people of essential health and nutrition services.    In Tanzania, over half of the health facilities in the country's largest camp for DRC refugees have closed, and understaffing has resulted in an average of one doctor for every 10,000 refugees.    In Syria, half of health facilities across the north-west will be non-operational by December 2024. In Afghanistan, 3.7 million people could not access health services, while 352,000 children under age five and 258,000 pregnant and lactating women were deprived of malnutrition treatment.    Insufficient resources have left millions without adequate shelter    Across the globe, when conflict or disaster strikes, emergency shelter is essential to human survival, yet it is one of the least-funded humanitarian sectors.    Just 28 per cent of the amount required to respond worldwide had been received for Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items as of 25 November.    In Syria, winterization efforts remain only ten per cent funded, leaving gaps for 1.4 million people living in more than 1,000 IDP sites. In Cameroon, 1.8 million people will not have access to adequate shelter. In Mali, only 10 per cent of emergency shelter needs for displaced people were covered, leaving nearly 2.4 million people vulnerable, particularly during floods. In Sudan, shelter needs for 4.4 million displaced people remain unmet, forcing many into overcrowded camps and open informal settlements.    Curtailed access to education is depriving children of their futures    Across the globe, education is under siege, leaving millions of children and adolescents without the support they need to thrive.    In Sudan, conflict, and resource constraints have forced 17 million children out of school, potentially creating a ‘lost generation’. 1.8 million children in Mali are out of school, with over 90 per cent of schools rendered non-functional due to critical funding shortages.    Approximately 1.5 million girls and boys in Venezuela were not able to access educational assistance. In Zimbabwe, without any intervention, school dropouts in 2025 could surge to 1.8 million children. In Angola, insufficient resources meant educational programmes could only support half the refugee children they initially aimed to help.    Under-resourcing and attacks against water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure are increasing disease risks    Access to clean water and adequate sanitation and hygiene, which is essential for survival, has been undermined in multiple countries, increasing the risk of death and disease.    By mid-2024, more than 100 million targeted people globally (42 per cent) had not received WASH assistance due to underfunding and attacks on infrastructure. In the Central African Republic and Chad, outbreaks of Hepatitis E and other water-borne diseases spread due to inadequate water and sanitation support.    In Uganda, only two of the 13 refugee-hosting settlements meet the minimum standard of 20 litres of water per person per day. In Ethiopia, 5.5 million people lacked WASH assistance, leaving them reliant on unsafe water sources. In Tanzania, underfunded settlements hosting DRC refugees have unacceptable water and sanitation conditions; school latrine ratios stand at 1:176—far below the 1:40 minimum standard.    For humanitarians to respond effectively to where they are needed, global solidarity must be stepped up to fully fund the GHO 2025. While $47 billion is a sizeable amount, it pales in comparison to other global expenditures—it is less than 2 per cent of global military expenditure, around 4 per cent of the global banking industry’s profits and just 12 per cent of the fossil fuel industry’s average annual free cash flow.    The bottom line: humanitarians are delivering whilst being under attack and underfunded, but global solidarity is urgently needed.    In 2025, it is imperative that the tightly prioritized response plans and appeals prepared by humanitarian agencies are fully funded. The lives and livelihoods of millions of people impacted by crises depend on galvanizing these resources.    http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2025 http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/12/1157706 http://news.un.org/en/story/2024/12/1157591 http://www.unocha.org/news/gho-2025-un-relief-chief-unveils-global-humanitarian-plan-amid-growing-crises http://www.unocha.org/news/gho-2025-ocha-spotlights-critical-role-local-organizations-deliver-aid-effectively http://www.unognewsroom.org/story/en/2444/ocha-press-conference-launch-of-the-global-humanitarian-overview-2025/7348 http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories http://www.nrc.no/news/2024/december/alarming-gap-in-humanitarian-assistance--millions-will-receive-no-support/ Visit the related web page
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