This issue provides a variety of perspectives on improving the international humanitarian system, along with personal reflections on recovering from natural and human-induced disasters. It was planned as a way to support the objectives of the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (Istanbul, Turkey, 23–24 May 2016).
We have a global displacement crisis on our hands, and as a global community we must address it. We must engage. We must empathize. We must figure out what we can do as individuals, as families, as neighbourhoods, as communities, as States, as nations.
The urgent need to achieve better solutions for millions of people whose lives are torn apart by conflict and violence was one of the drivers of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's decision to hold the World Humanitarian Summit on 23 and 24 May 2016 in Istanbul.
The urgency is all too clear: if current demographic and conflict trends—protracted complex conflicts with a high risk of relapse, forced displacement at a record scale, urbanized conflict, growing inequality—continue, the gap between needs and response will only grow worse.
UN efforts have helped meet the immediate needs of people whose lives have been devastated by events such as earthquakes, famine and war. We have also assisted affected communities in building back stronger infrastructure and institutions to help protect them from future catastrophes.
