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	Necessary support from the international community is not keeping pace with humanitarian needs by UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs, agencies   Dec. 2023 (OCHA)   Conflicts, climate emergencies and collapsing economies are wreaking havoc in communities around the world. Nearly 181 million people in 72 countries are targeted to receive humanitarian aid and protection next year.   128 million people received life-saving assistance in 2023, but a growing funding gap meant that support was cut back and millions of people were not reached.   On behalf of more than 1,900 humanitarian partners worldwide, the United Nations today launched its global appeal for 2024, calling for US$46.4 billion to help 180.5 million people with life-saving assistance and protection.   Armed conflicts, the climate emergency and collapsing economies are taking a devastating toll on the most vulnerable communities on all continents, resulting in catastrophic hunger, massive displacement and disease outbreaks.   One child in every five lives in, or has fled from, conflict zones in 2023. Some 258 million people face acute hunger. One in 73 people worldwide is displaced – a doubling in 10 years. And disease outbreaks are causing preventable deaths in all corners of the world.   “Humanitarians are saving lives, fighting hunger, protecting children, pushing back epidemics, and providing shelter and sanitation in many of the world’s most inhumane contexts. But the necessary support from the international community is not keeping pace with the needs,” said Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.   “We thank all donors for their contributions this year - but it was just a third of what was needed. If we cannot provide more help in 2024, people will pay for it with their lives.”   Funding shortfalls in 2023 meant that humanitarian organizations reached less than two thirds of the people they aimed to assist.   The consequences are tragic: In Afghanistan, 10 million people lost access to food assistance between May and November. In Myanmar, more than half a million people were left in inadequate living conditions. In Yemen, more than 80 per cent of people targeted for assistance do not have proper water and sanitation. And in Nigeria, only 2 per cent of the women expecting sexual and reproductive health services and gender-based violence prevention received it.   Aid organizations have addressed this needs-and-resources gap in their 2024 response plans, which will have a more disciplined focus on the most urgent needs and will target fewer people: nearly 181 million next year compared to 245 million at the end of 2023. Organizations are also appealing for less money: $46.4 billion for 2024 compared to $56.7 billion at the end of the 2023 global appeal.   However, the ambition to reach all people in need has not changed, and the call to donors to fully fund all the response plans is as urgent as ever.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024/   Dec. 2023   Working with partners, UNICEF aims to reach 94 million children with life-saving assistance.   Across the globe, children and families are facing unprecedented humanitarian crises. Around 300 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance and protection as devastating earthquakes, climate-related disasters, disease outbreaks and new and surging conflicts have left tens of millions of children and their families reeling.   But despite the record needs, the situation isn’t hopeless. We know how to reach the children at greatest risk. Decisive and timely humanitarian action combined with flexible funding and close work with local partners can save children’s lives now, while also sowing the seeds of future development.   Through its 2024 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal, UNICEF is appealing for $9.3 billion to reach 94 million children with life-saving assistance – whenever and wherever it is needed.   “Millions of children continue to be caught in humanitarian crises that are growing in complexity and scale, and that are increasingly stretching our resources to respond,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.   The unpredictability, volatility, and protracted nature of emergencies today is taking a heavy toll on children and families. From earthquakes in Afghanistan, Syria and Turkiye, to conflict and violence in Ukraine, Sudan, the State of Palestine and Haiti, to massive displacement in Democratic Republic of the Congo, emergencies can strike or escalate with little or no warning.   In conflict zones, children endure the harsh realities of violence and displacement, facing the daily threats of physical harm, emotional trauma, and the disruption of their education and essential services. At the same time, children in areas affected by violence contend with the pervasive impact on their well-being, grappling with the psychological toll of instability, and the heightened risk of exploitation and abuse.   "Around the world, war continues to upend the lives of children. We estimate that today, 460 million children are living in, or fleeing from conflict zones. And wherever violence occurs – in places like Burkina Faso, Haiti, Sudan – children suffer first, and they suffer most.   "Many children living in areas affected by conflict are injured or killed. They may lose family members or friends. With many displaced multiple times, risking separation from their families, losing critical years of education, and fraying ties to their communities. I have seen firsthand too much of the horrible toll that conflict exacts on children.   Climate change is worsening the scale and intensity of emergencies. Wreaking havoc on young lives by causing severe droughts, heatwaves and more intense storms. In regions struggling with its impacts, children bear the brunt of environmental challenges, jeopardizing their health, creating food and water insecurity.   Food insecurity like that experienced in the Horn of Africa. Or the 2.4 million children in South Sudan and the central Sahel who suffered from severe wasting in 2023 because of drought linked to climate change.   It’s critical that UNICEF and local partners have support, so that children living through an emergency can have the life-saving aid and protection they need, where and when they need it. Timely and flexible funding can help save lives today, while also allowing UNICEF and partners to respond effectively to new and emerging risks before it’s too late or even more costly.   The 2024 appeal includes support for major crises in Afghanistan, Syrian Refugees, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine. Critically underfunded emergencies include Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Haiti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Bangladesh.   “UNICEF and partners are committed to providing a comprehensive response to the many humanitarian crises affecting children, including the impacts of conflicts, climate change and natural disasters,” said Russell. “Children should not be paying with their lives and their futures. They need continued access to essential services, like health care, safe water, basic sanitation and education".   "Working together through principled humanitarian action, we can reach the most vulnerable children, offering them the support they need for a brighter future".   http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/launch-2024-humanitarian-appeal   World Health Organization: Health Emergency Appeal 2024   In 2024, 300 million people will require humanitarian assistance and protection, with an estimated 166 million people requiring health assistance. Conflict and the climate crisis have affected healthcare and deepened threats around the world, and at least five WHO regions are now impacted by worsening conflict and security including the desperate situations in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine. For those facing emergencies, disruptions to health services often mean the difference between life and death.   The Health Emergency Appeal will support WHO in responding to ongoing and new emergencies around the world, and protect the health of the most vulnerable populations in 41 emergencies around the globe in 2024.   The appeal covers the emergencies that demand the highest level of response from WHO, with the aim to reach over 87 million people. It is being issued in a context of complex emergencies cutting across crises of conflict, climate change and economic instability, which continue to fuel displacement, hunger, and inequality.   “For those facing emergencies, disruptions to essential health services often mean the difference between life and death. Health care saves lives”, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.   Support in 2024 will enable life-saving health care, distribution of critical health supplies and equipment, along with maintenance of essential health services to ensure continuous care.   In every humanitarian crisis, people are at risk of trauma, disease and death. Women, children, older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions are disproportionately affected by humanitarian emergencies.   Access to health-care services can mean the difference between life and death – enabling mothers to give birth safely, protecting children against infectious diseases, treating malnutrition and ensuring those with chronic diseases continue to receive vital treatment.   Failing to protect health in humanitarian emergencies not only puts lives at immediate risk, it also feeds a cycle of poverty, threatening progress for health, education, nutrition and livelihoods.   http://www.who.int/emergencies/funding/health-emergency-appeals/2024 http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-warns-global-health-under-threat-never Visit the related web page
	People in crisis cannot be forgotten by Dr. Natalia Kanem United Nations Population Fund   Dec. 2023   This year saw records toppled one after the other: The hottest year in human history; the highest number of people displaced; hunger crises at their worst.   With these broken thresholds comes a grim new tipping point: One in every 22 people in the world now needs humanitarian support, while the global humanitarian system faces its severest funding shortfall in years.   To support some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, has launched its humanitarian appeal. An urgent call for ramped-up delivery of life-saving reproductive health services and programmes to prevent gender-based violence, the appeal covers 58 countries and 48 million people.   The highest funding needs are in Afghanistan. Years of conflict, poverty, political instability and now recurrent drought have undone decades of progress – particularly for the rights of women and girls – and two thirds of the population need humanitarian assistance.   Exacerbating the situation, in early October a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck western regions of the country, killing and wounding thousands and wiping out health facilities in already underserved and hard-to-access areas.   Sediqa Karimi, a midwife with a UNFPA-supported mobile health team, was immediately deployed to assist women in the village of Naeb Rafi. “Witnessing the suffering of children and women in their final moments left me traumatized,” she said.   Afghanistan is one of the world’s most dangerous countries to give birth, with one woman dying every two hours during pregnancy or delivery. For many, UNFPA’s network of family health houses and community midwives provide the only health-care services available in remote regions. “Our presence is a source of comfort and reassurance for these women in need,” said Ms. Karimi.   As of September, an unprecedented 114 million people across the world had been forcibly displaced from their homes.   “When crisis strikes, women and girls pay the steepest price,” says UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. “Unless we put them front and centre in our humanitarian response, we will see more gender-based violence, more child marriage, and more pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths.   In Gaza, 35-year-old Walaa waited to see a doctor at the Al-Hilo hospital with a fracture in her skull and her right hand. “I am in my ninth month, I could give birth any moment now,” she told UNFPA. “Of course I’m afraid to deliver amid war… Nothing is safe. Even hospitals are not safe.”   There are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women currently in Gaza, with scarce access to reproductive health care, enough food to eat or a safe place to stay.   In Yemen, nearly half of all health facilities have closed since the conflict escalated; UNFPA is the only organization providing life-saving reproductive health services in hospitals, at camps for internally displaced people and through mobile clinics. Now with repeated cycles of drought and flooding, the climate crisis is rapidly multiplying the risks women and girls face.   Recent UNFPA data show that countries most vulnerable to climate change also have some of the highest maternal death and child marriage rates, and among the most chronic levels of gender-based violence.   Over the next decade, climate and conflict will likely force more women and girls to move in search of safety and shelter, increasing their exposure to violence: UNFPA estimates that in 2024 more than 6 million pregnant women will need critical humanitarian assistance and some 84 million women and girls risk facing gender-based violence.   Since conflict broke out in Sudan in mid-April this year, many medical facilities have struggled to operate and access to critical supplies have been severely compromised.   “In one month we lost six women during labour in the hospital I work for because of shortages of Oxytocin,” said one doctor, who preferred not to be named. “It's really sad to see women die because of shortages of medicine. The happiness of a lot of families turned into an endless sorrow because of that.”   UNFPA is shipping vital haemorrhage-treating medicines to Sudan, a lifeline for over 500,000 women who during pregnancy and childbirth are at risk of uncontrolled bleeding, the leading cause of maternal deaths in the country.   This year alone UNFPA served over 10 million people in the most demanding emergencies, providing reproductive health services and protection against gender-based violence for 4.2 million.   “Together we are working for a world where, whatever the crisis, protecting the health, safety, and rights of women and girls is priority number one,” says Dr. Kanem. “This is the foundation for the peace, justice and security that they – and the world – so desperately need.”   http://www.unfpa.org/safebirth#/en http://www.unfpa.org/news/ Visit the related web page
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