Global Humanitarian Overview 2026: Trends in crises and needs: a world at breaking point by UNICEF, WFP, UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs 8:49am 28th Jan, 2026   Jan. 2026    UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children as global humanitarian needs reach new extremes.    Surging conflicts, rising hunger, global funding cuts, and collapsing basic services are driving humanitarian needs for children to extreme levels worldwide.    As UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children 2026 (HAC) appeal is launched today, US$7.66 billion is urgently required to provide life-saving assistance to 73 million children - including 37 million girls and over 9 million children with disabilities – across 133 countries and territories next year.    Across every region, children caught in emergencies are facing overlapping crises that are growing in scale and complexity.    Escalating conflicts are driving mass displacement and exposing children to grave violations at the highest levels ever recorded.    Attacks on schools and hospitals continue unabated, while verified cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are rising sharply. In many crises, children and the aid workers attempting to reach them are being deliberately targeted.    “Around the world, children caught in conflict, disaster, displacement and economic turmoil continue to face extraordinary challenges,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Their lives are being shaped by forces far beyond their control: violence, the threat of famine, intensifying climate shocks, and the widespread collapse of essential services.”    The global humanitarian funding environment has deteriorated dramatically in 2025. Announced and anticipated funding cuts by donor governments are already limiting UNICEF’s ability to reach millions of children in dire need. Severe shortfalls in 2024 and 2025 are forcing UNICEF to make impossible choices.    Across UNICEF’s nutrition programming alone, a 72 per cent funding gap in 2025 forced cuts in 20 priority countries – reducing planned targets from more than 42 million to over 27 million women and children.    In education, a shortfall of US$745 million has left millions more children at risk of losing access to learning, protection and stability.    For child protection, rising violations coincide with shrinking resources, threatening programmes for survivors of sexual violence, children recruited or used by armed groups, and those requiring urgent health support.    “Severe funding shortfalls are placing UNICEF’s life-saving programs under immense strain,” said Russell. “Across our operations, frontline teams are being forced into impossible decisions: focusing limited supplies and services on children in some places over others, decreasing the frequency of services children receive, or scaling back interventions that children depend on to survive.”    At the same time, humanitarian access is being restricted at levels unseen in recent years. In many emergencies, UNICEF and partners cannot reach children trapped behind shifting frontlines, making sustained humanitarian diplomacy essential to secure access and to protect children from escalating violations.    UNICEF warns that more than 200 million children will require humanitarian assistance in 2026. Many live in protracted crises, leaving entire generations at risk of under-nutrition, denied education, exposed to disease outbreaks, and deprived of safety and stability.    “The current global funding crisis does not reflect a decline in humanitarian need, but rather a growing gap between the scale of suffering and the resources available,” said Russell.    “While UNICEF is working to adapt to this new reality, children are already paying the price of shrinking humanitarian budgets.”    UNICEF is urging national governments, public sector donors and private sector partners to increase their investment in children, prioritising flexible and multi-year funding; support locally led response and national systems; uphold humanitarian principles and the centrality of protection; and remove barriers that impede humanitarian access.    http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/remarks-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-launch-unicefs-humanitarian    Dec. 2025    Global Humanitarian Overview 2026: Trends in crises and needs: a world at breaking point - UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs    In 2026, millions of people caught in conflict and disaster face their hardest test yet: survival. Funding cuts in 2025 stripped away lifelines, even as crises deepen. Yet, the global humanitarian community is determined to stand with them—from local organizations aiding their own communities, to international partners delivering where it is needed most.    In 2026, humanitarians will aim to collectively assist 135 million people, out of 239 million people in need, with the immediate priority being to save 87 million lives.    The Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) 2026 is grounded in the harsh reality facing humanitarian action after a year in which thousands of staff were laid off and humanitarian offices were closed around the world.    Humanitarians are appealing for $33 billion through the Global Humanitarian Overview in 2026, of which $23 billion is required immediately to respond to the most life-threatening needs. While these amounts may seem daunting, they pale in comparison to other global expenditures—it is around one per cent of global military expenditure.    The 2026 GHO represents the critical core of the global humanitarian effort. It is focused on the places hit the hardest by crises and the people with the most life-threatening needs.    It reflects excruciating decisions—forced by funding cuts—regarding who and where should be prioritized for assistance, grounded in the principle of impartiality, and its call for humanitarians to reach those in most urgent distress first. The Global Humanitarian Overview reflects intense efforts by every country operation and regional response to take action to to save as many lives as possible.    2026 must be a year of renewed global solidarity following the decimation wrought by funding cuts in 2025. Humanitarian action remains the most effective lifeline for millions of people in crisis and costs just a fraction of global expenditure.    The Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 is the most tightly defined global appeal—focused on saving as many lives as possible—and it must be fully funded.    Trends in crises and needs: a world at breaking point    As 2026 begins, over 239 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection amidst entrenched conflicts that are more violent against civilians and lasting longer than at any time since World War Two, and a climate crisis that is escalating unabated.    From Haiti to Myanmar, Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), horrifying violence, hunger, displacement and disease are tearing people’s lives apart—killing and maiming civilians, waging war on the bodies of women and girls, separating families, forcibly uprooting people from their land and livelihoods, fueling the spread of diseases and devastating their mental and physical health.    There are two main drivers of urgent humanitarian needs globally, both of which are man-made and could be reversed with concerted and collective action.    Conflict is the main cause of death, displacement and hunger    Civilians are enduring a record number of armed conflicts marked by increased flagrant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights, including mass atrocities and attacks on health and learning facilities.    More than two years into the Israeli offensive in Gaza, OPT, 69,785 people have been killed, according to Ministry of Health figures, while a recent study estimated that the violent death toll is likely more than 100,000 people. In Sudan, a 500-day siege was followed by the killing of thousands of civilians in El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces, while similar dynamics are playing out in Kordofan entering 2026, with lack of respect for civilian life and freedom of movement.    In 2025, three out of every four civilian fatalities in conflict worldwide has occurred in countries with a humanitarian plan or appeal. In Myanmar, increased killings, razing of villages, and mass forced displacement have been reported. The spread and intensification of cholera outbreaks have also been driven by conflicts, notably in Chad, DRC, Sudan and South Sudan. In 2025, three out of every four civilian fatalities in conflict worldwide has occurred in countries with a humanitarian plan or appeal.    As wars increasingly move into cities, the rising use of explosive weapons in populated areas is having catastrophic consequences. Civilians continue to make up 90 percent of those harmed by explosive weapons in populated areas and civilian casualties from explosive weapons rose by 69 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, predominantly due to the war in Gaza, OPT.    Attacks by explosive weapons in residential areas and markets can also disproportionately affect women in contexts where they have the primary responsibility for buying food and household goods at markets.    Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Member States from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Ottawa Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions—which ban anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions respectively—marks a dangerous retreat from international humanitarian law and weakens fundamental norms for the protection of civilians. Globally, over 84 per cent of landmine victims are civilians.    The accelerating integration of emerging technologies into armed conflict is amplifying already intensifying risks. The use of drones is making conflict more accessible and more asymmetric: between 2022 and 2024, the number of companies making drones has exploded from six to over 200.    Drone attacks in conflict settings increased by 4,000 percent between 2020 and 2024, and more than quadrupled between 2023 (4,525 attacks) and 2024 (19,704). The proliferation of drones is also threatening life-saving humanitarian aid.    Until 2022, fewer than 10 drone-related incidents affected healthcare or aid delivery each year, while in 2024 there were over 300 such incidents. Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence has significant implications for the way wars are waged. If algorithms are trained in overly permissive targeting rules, the result will be death and destruction among civilians at greater speed and on a larger scale.    Conflict trends in recent years—including widespread violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) by Member States and armed groups and impunity for international crimes—risk eroding protection of civilians everywhere.    ICRC has warned that, unless negative trends—including broadening the notion of who or what constitutes a lawful target, the idea that IHL obligations depend on reciprocity, and the dehumanization of fighting forces of the enemy, and civilian populations—are rapidly reversed, IHL risks becoming a justification for violence rather than a shield for humanity.    The unequal application of IHL and advocacy for compliance, which was pronounced in 2025, also risks respect for humanitarian principles, aid workers and organizations in future conflicts.    More than 295 million people face high acute food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 3 and above) across 53 countries and territories—a sixth consecutive annual increase and nearly three times the number recorded in 2016.    Famine (IPC Phase 5) re-emerged, driven by conflict in Gaza, OPT and parts of Sudan in 2025, with a risk of Famine emerging in parts of South Sudan. Around 1.2 million people faced catastrophic levels (IPC/CH Phase 5) of acute food insecurity in 2025 across six countries and territories, primarily in Gaza, OPT and Sudan, followed by Haiti, Mali, South Sudan and Yemen.    Afghanistan, DRC, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia and Syria are of very high concern with deteriorating conditions and large populations already facing Emergency levels of acute food insecurity.    Conflict represents a principal driver of food insecurity for 14 out of 16 hunger hotspots where acute food insecurity is likely to worsen. It plays a major role in driving the catastrophic or extremely severe conditions affecting people in hotspot countries at the highest concern level.    Food insecurity significantly undermines protection; when individuals or communities lack reliable access to sufficient and nutritious food, they may resort to harmful strategies such as child labor, child marriage, or transactional sex to survive.    Over 117 million people are forcibly displaced by conflict and violence, including 42.5 million refugees. Sudan remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, while internal displacement doubled in Haiti from September 2024 to October 2025 and rose significantly in Myanmar and South Sudan.    Lack of respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) is fueling mass arrivals of refugees in certain places: Chad hosts 1.47 million refugees, of whom almost 900,000 have arrived since the conflict in Sudan started in 2023 and some 260,000 in 2025 only.    While the global number of people forcibly displaced has dropped due to an increase in returns, including to and within the DRC, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan, those making long and fraught journeys home require assistance and risk mitigation, support and solidarity during their travel and upon arrival.    Around 520 million children—more than one out of five children in the world—are living in or fleeing conflict zones. Explosive weapons are killing children on a scale never seen before as wars increasingly move into cities and grave violations against children are on the rise.    In OPT, a staggering 64,000 children have reportedly been killed or maimed across Gaza in two years, and around one quarter of people facing life-changing injuries in Gaza are children.    In Sudan, the siege of El Fasher became an epicentre of child suffering, with more than 1,100 grave violations reported in El Fasher alone, including the killing and maiming of over 1,000 children.    In 2024, boys accounted for the majority of children affected by violations, facing significantly higher risks of recruitment, killing and maiming. Meanwhile, girls continued to suffer from sexual violence but the number of boys affected by sexual violence surged by 125 percent compared to the previous year. The highest numbers of grave violations against children were verified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Nigeria, OPT and Somalia in 2024.    Some 676 million women now live within 50 kilometres of deadly conflict, the highest level since the 1990s and conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 per cent in two years.    In Haiti nearly two-thirds of the cases of sexual violence involve gang rape. In the DRC, children accounted for up to 45 per cent of nearly 10,000 reported cases of rape and sexual violence in just two months (January-February 2025), during which time, “a child was raped every half an hour.”    Climate change is worsening disasters and geological events are impacting communities already in crisis    The world is perilously close to 1.5ºC warming and it is expected that 2025 will be the second or third hottest year on record after 2024, marked by weather extremes: floods in West Africa and Asia, drought in South America, and heatwaves and wildfires across the globe.    Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall across Cuba and Jamaica in October 2025, was one of the most powerful landfalling hurricanes ever recorded. A hurricane such as this is approximately four times more likely to occur in today’s climate as compared to a pre-industrial time.    As of November 2025, 2192 weather-related disasters were recorded, affecting at least 49 million people and causing thousands of deaths.    Meanwhile, geological events—especially earthquakes—are increasingly impacting communities already in crisis. In Afghanistan, on 31 August 2025, a 6+ magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks struck Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in the east, killing over 2,150 people and causing widespread destruction of homes along the mountainous slopes and valleys.    In Myanmar, two devastating earthquakes struck on 28 March 2025, killing 3,800 people, injuring 51,000, destroying thousands of homes and disrupting communications, water access and electricity supply.    Globally, three in four people who are forcibly displaced live in countries facing high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards and weather-related disasters have caused some 250 million internal displacements—equivalent to around 70,000 displacements per day—over the past ten years.    When development or political action fails, crises become protracted. Conflict duration has nearly doubled in the past thirty years: the average duration of conflicts that ended in 1990 was around 16 years, while in 2020 it was over 30 years.    Since 2010, conflict termination rates have declined by 25 per cent while recurrence rates have risen 44 per cent compared to 1990 to 2009.    Around 204 million people live in areas controlled or contested by armed groups globally—74 million under full control and 130 million in contested areas.    Meanwhile, resources for peace and conflict prevention in contexts facing high and extreme fragility are at their second lowest level since 20046 and development and climate financing remains lowest in countries with the highest fragility and vulnerability.    As a result, international humanitarian action in 75 per cent (18 out of 24) HNRP9 countries has lasted more than 10 years. Humanitarian action in the absence of robust development and political action cannot provide solutions or significantly strengthen resilience.    Amidst this devastation, humanitarians have worked incisively to identify just over 239 million people in 50 countries who have been hardest-hit by crises and face the most severe needs, requiring humanitarian assistance and protection in 2026.    The people facing the most urgent, crisis-driven, needs captured in GHO 2026 therefore represent the tip of the iceberg of global suffering.    Beyond humanitarian crises, millions of people are enduring needs driven by other causes, including deep-rooted economic challenges, while over 1.1 billion people in 109 countries now face acute multi-dimensional poverty, most of whom live in countries that do not have humanitarian plans or appeals but that may face different states of fragility.    More than 400 million children globally live in poverty, missing out on at least two daily needs such as nutrition and sanitation, and it is forecasted that more than 351 million women and girls could still be living in extreme poverty by the end of the decade if current trends persist.    The outlook for these people may worsen unless they receive concerted attention and support—both domestically and globally—focused on securing political will to end conflict, eradicating poverty, eliminating marginalization, bringing sustainable development to those left furthest behind in line with the 2030 Agenda, and climate adaptation.    http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/trends-crises-and-needs-world-breaking-point http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/under-fire-and-under-pressure-what-happens-when-humanitarian-action-hindered http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/humanitarians-action-delivering-2025-amid-extreme-challenges http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026 http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/december/2026-millions-in-need-will-not-get-aid-unless-global-solidarity-revived http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-prioritize-feeding-110-million-hungriest-2026-global-hunger-deepens-amidst-uncertain http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/despite-funding-cuts-unhcr-responded-multiple-complex-emergencies-last-year    http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2025/12/11/abrupt-transitions-global-humanitarian-overview-pushes-dangerous-trend http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2025/10/one-in-three-organizations-have-suspended-or-shut-down-programmes-on-ending-violence-against-women-due-to-funding-cuts http://www.rescue.org/press-release/irc-emergency-watchlist-2026-new-world-disorder-driving-unprecedented-humanitarian http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/publications/global-hunger-hotspots-report-2026/ http://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-briefs/a-generational-collapse-tracking-the-toll-of-trumps-humanitarian-aid-cuts/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/year-no-other-ngo-statement-launch-new-un-2026-appeal    Dec. 2025    Acute Food Insecurity in 2025: A Global Overview - World Food Programme (WFP)    In 2025, an estimated 318 million people across 68 countries are experiencing acute food insecurity, with 41.1 million in Emergency or worse (IPC/CH Phase 4+).    The apparent decrease from 343 million in 2024 to 318 million in 2025 at the global level is primarily due to reduced country coverage and data availability. It does not reflect an actual improvement in food security.    The number of people facing catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) remains alarmingly high. In 2025, Phase 5 populations were located in Palestine (Gaza Strip), Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, and Mali - underscoring the persistence and severity of food crises in fragile or conflict-affected contexts. Populations in Phase 5 are expected in Nigeria during the 2026 lean season.    In 2025, Famine was confirmed in parts of Palestine (Gaza Strip) and Sudan, while some areas of South Sudan continue to face a risk of Famine.    The continued prevalence of Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4) and Famine/Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) conditions over time underscores the critical need for sustained humanitarian interventions. Additionally, improving data coverage remains essential for understanding and responding to these crises effectively.    http://reliefweb.int/report/world/acute-food-insecurity-2025-global-overview    18 Nov. 2025    Global hunger deepens - 318 million people to face crisis levels of hunger or worse in 2026    The world is facing a global hunger crisis with inadequate resources to respond, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.    According to WFP’s 2026 Global Outlook, a staggering 318 million people face crisis levels of hunger or worse next year - more than double the figure recorded in 2019. However, declines in global humanitarian funding are forcing WFP to prioritize food assistance to roughly one-third of those in need.    In 2026, the agency aims to reach 110 million of the most vulnerable at an estimated cost of $13 billion, but current funding forecasts indicate WFP may only receive close to half that goal.    “The world is grappling with simultaneous famines - in Gaza and parts of Sudan. This is completely unacceptable in the twenty-first century,” stressed Cindy McCain, WFP Executive Director. “Across the globe, hunger is becoming more entrenched. WFP has proven time and again that early, effective solutions can save lives but we desperately need more support to continue this vital work.”    In 2025 WFP’s famine prevention efforts pulled several communities back from the brink of starvation. Yet, the global food crisis shows no signs of abating in 2026 as conflict, extreme weather events, and economic instability are expected to drive another year of severe food insecurity.    In 2026, WFP will continue working on delivering emergency food and nutrition assistance to communities in need and to vulnerable families who depend on humanitarian assistance to survive.    “WFP provides a critical lifeline to people on the frontlines of conflicts and weather disasters, as well as those forced to leave their homes,” Executive Director McCain added. “Ending hunger demands much more sustained support and real global commitment and collaboration.”    WFP is urging the international community to invest in proven solutions to stop the spread of hunger in 2026.    http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-prioritize-feeding-110-million-hungriest-2026-global-hunger-deepens-amidst-uncertain http://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000170274/download/    Hunger Hotspots report: November 2025 - May 2026    A new joint report by UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that acute food insecurity is deepening in 16 hunger hotspots, which threatens to drive millions more into famine or risk of famine.    Time is quickly running out to avert widespread starvation in the areas of highest concern. Conflict, economic shocks, extreme weather, and critical funding shortfalls are exacerbating dire conditions. Despite the growing urgency to provide lifesaving assistance at scale, funding is perilously limited.    The latest Hunger Hotspots report, which covers the period from November 2025 through May 2026, finds that in 14 of the 16 hotspots­ identified, conflict and violence are the primary drivers of hunger.    The report cites six countries and territories of highest concern - Haiti, Mali, Palestine, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen – where populations face an imminent risk of catastrophic hunger (IPC/CH Phase 5).    Six more countries – Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, and the Syrian Arab Republic – are classified as “very high concern”. The other four hotspots are Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya and the situation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.    As these hunger hotspots edge closer to catastrophic conditions, or even famine, humanitarian funding is falling dangerously short. As of the end of October 2025, only US$10.5 billion out of the US$29 billion required to assist people most at risk had been received.    Severe shortfalls are crippling emergency responses, forcing deep ration cuts and reducing access to food for the most vulnerable groups with refugee food assistance at a breaking point.    Assistance coverage has dropped across most hunger hotspots. WFP has been forced to reduce assistance for refugees and displaced people. At the same time, critical nutrition and school feeding programmes have been suspended in some countries, leaving children, refugees, and displaced families at extreme risk.    The FAO warns that funding shortages are also critically undermining efforts to protect agricultural livelihoods, which are essential for stabilizing food production and preventing recurring crises. Without urgent financing, vital livelihood support will not reach communities before planting seasons begin or new shocks occur. This will heighten the risk of future crises.    Across the hunger hotspot countries, household food production and incomes remain insufficient to meet basic needs.    The FAO and WFP call on the international community to urgently focus global attention on famine prevention and scale up investments in food security. To heed the warnings signalled by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system and Cadre Harmonisé (CH), and act urgently before conditions reach catastrophic thresholds.    Urgent action is needed to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access in conflict-affected areas, so that life-saving food, nutrition, and agricultural assistance can reach those in need.    “We are on the brink of a completely preventable hunger catastrophe that threatens widespread starvation in multiple countries,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. “Mothers are skipping meals so their children can eat, and families are exhausting what little they have left as they struggle to survive. We urgently need new funding and unimpeded access – a failure to act now will only drive further instability, migration, and conflict.”    FAO and WFP emphasize that famine is preventable, but only with political will, adequate funding, and collective accountability. Millions of lives depend on decisive action now.    http://www.wfp.org/news/new-fao-wfp-report-warns-shrinking-window-prevent-millions-more-people-facing-acute-food http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/hunger-hotspots http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/en/ http://fews.net/global/food-assistance-outlook-brief/january-2026 Visit the related web page
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