The United Nations (UN) has announced it needs $46.4 billion next year to provide life-saving aid to some 180 million people in desperate circumstances around the world.
The UN has said the global humanitarian outlook for 2024 is "bleak", with conflicts, climate emergencies and collapsing economies "wreaking havoc" among the most vulnerable, AFP reported.
As the world's attention focuses on the raging conflict in the Gaza Strip, the UN has pointed out that the Middle East, Sudan and Afghanistan are among the hotspots that also need major international aid operations.
But the size of the annual appeal and the number of people it aims to reach were scaled back from 2023, following a drop in donations.
"Aid workers save lives, fight hunger, protect children, fight epidemics and provide shelter and sanitation in many of the world's most inhumane environments," said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths. "But the necessary support from the international community is not doing enough," he added.
The 2023 appeal was for $56.7 billion, but only 35% of that amount has been raised. This enabled UN agencies to provide assistance and protection to 128 million people.
2023 is likely to be the first year since 2010 that humanitarian aid donations have declined compared to the previous year.
That is why this time the UN has reduced its appeal to $46.4 billion and will focus on those most in need.
72 countries
Publishing the Global Humanitarian Review 2024, Griffiths said the sum was still a "huge ask" and would be difficult to raise as many donor countries faced their own cost-of-living crises.
“Without adequate funding, we cannot provide life-saving care. And if we can't provide that help, people will pay with their lives," he said.
The appeal covers aid for 72 countries: 26 countries in crisis and 46 neighboring nations dealing with indirect effects such as refugee flows.
The top five appeals are for Syria ($4.4 billion), Ukraine ($3.1 billion), Afghanistan ($3 billion), Ethiopia ($2.9 billion) and Yemen ($2.8 billion) .
Griffiths noted that there will be 300 million people in need worldwide next year, down from 363 million last year.
But the UN aims to reach only 180.5 million of them, with NGOs and aid agencies targeting the rest.
Impact of climate
The Middle East and North Africa needs $13.9 billion, the largest amount of any region in 2024.
Beyond Syria, the Palestinian territories and Yemen, Griffiths also pointed to Sudan and its neighbours, as well as Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Myanmar as hotspots that need continued global attention.
Ukraine is going through a "desperate winter" with the prospect of more war on the other side, he said.
According to Griffiths, with the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, plus the war between Russia and Ukraine, it is difficult for the crisis in Sudan to get the attention it deserves in foreign capitals.
More broadly, climate change will increasingly affect the work of aid workers, who will need to learn how to better use climate data to focus aid resources.
“There is no doubt that climate confronts and competes with conflict as a driver of need. Climate now displaces more children than conflict. It has never been like this before," the UN humanitarian chief stressed. /BGNES
