The UN Refugee Agency and its partners deliver aid to hard-to-reach neighborhoods in Eastern Aleppo, Syria. Photo/UNHCR
During 2017, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners assisted more people than any previous year since the founding of the Organization. A total of 96.2 million people, more than half of them women and children, were targeted for life-saving assistance of food, shelter, health and protection in over 40 countries.
Devastating natural disasters now displace three times more people than conflicts
Yet devastating natural disasters, such as floods, storms, wildfires and severe weather, now displace three times more people than are displaced by conflicts.
More than 31 million new cases of internal displacement were recorded in 2016, the equivalent of one person forced to flee every second. Of these, more than 24.2 million people were displaced by natural hazards in 118 countries and territories, or more than three times the 6.9 million people who were recently displaced as a result of conflict. The frequency, intensity and cost of natural disasters have increased owing to changing weather patterns. The 2015/16 El Niño phenomenon prompted 23 countries across four continents to seek assistance for more than 60 million people, and there may be a new El Niño episode in 2017.
An unprecedented food crisis has hit more people than ever before. Conflict, drought and violence have carried the threat of famine that has affected 20 million people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
Nevertheless, disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights law remained endemic, as evidenced by attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers and medical personnel.
To address these needs, in 2017 the United Nations appealed for a record level of $22.5 billion in humanitarian support (see figure VI). Yet despite the generosity of donors, who provided $12.6 billion in 2016, humanitarian action remained challenged by a lack of funds and access on the ground. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs administered some $714 million in country-based pool funds to relieve 17 crises, along with $439 million from the Central Emergency Response Funds to support 47 countries through rapid-response and underfunded emergency grants in 2016.
In response to the unprecedented levels of humanitarian needs, the first ever World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 set out to reduce suffering. The Summit was evidence that the need for principled humanitarian action to better deliver to affected people is more crucial today than ever before.