As the society generally develops, we enjoy the convenience brought to us by our powerful nations. However, one significant issue is still causing the suffer of people around the world. Currently, an estimate of 339 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance to survive from the various different crisis happening worldwide. Again, at the start of 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) attempts to raise the awareness of all individuals, and calls for help to assist those under serious humanitarian crisis.
The Current Situation
The 2023 Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) presentation was presented by Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief coordinator Martin Griffiths. In the presentation, Griffiths pointed out some of the essential numbers that all people should keep in mind:
The same time last year, 274 million people needed humanitarian assistance. This was already a 17% rise from the previous year.
The number is 339 million for the upcoming 2023.
1 in 23 people on this planet needed emergency assistance to survive.
222 million people will not know when or even if they will eat another meal in 2023.
Nearly 1 million people will be at risk of starvation due to catastrophic levels of hunger in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
The number of people displaced globally continues its steady rise, reaching a record 103 million.
It will now take 4 generations to achieve global gender parity, since women and children are hit the hardest by poverty and hunger.
What can these data show us? Except from the fact that the majority of people are suffering from crisis in areas that we can’t see, these numbers can explain to us the importance of being aware of humanitarian crisis happening in the world.
First, conflicts. Prolonged conflict, instability and violence that grind on for years without any letup, such as in Syria and Yemen. In 2022 and the upcoming 2023, Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with around 23.4 million people in need of emergency assistance, including almost 13 million children. After eight years of conflict, the national socioeconomic systems of Yemen remain on the edge of total collapse, while conflict, large-scale displacement and recurring climate shocks have left families vulnerable to communicable diseases outbreaks. By late 2022, more than 17.8 million people lacked access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services. The country continues to experience regular outbreaks of cholera, measles, diphtheria and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
Beside these conflicts, there are fresh conflicts coming up. This year, the world reeled as war was waged between Russia and Ukraine, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people; wiping out electricity and water supplies; destroying hospitals, schools and homes; and triggering one of the world’s worst displacement crises since the Second World War. Even until now, a war of such large scale is not over yet. The primary and secondary effects of the conflict is the chief culprit of the suffer on this land.
Second, the climate emergency, which is claiming the lives of the most vulnerable and is fast outpacing the world’s feeble attempts to stem it. It is a painful injustice that the countries that have contributed the least to this crisis are among the most at risk. The Horn of Africa is enduring a fifth successive failed rainy season, and record flooding has submerged entire villages and harvests in Nigeria and Pakistan. Houses and infrastructures were destroyed, supply system were heavily damaged, causing severe problems of hunger and thirst. These facts alone should be enough to spur global leaders into action.
Third, the world is still experiencing the pandemic’s effects, which caused economic instability, disrupted markets and increased poverty. COVID-19 poses major threats to populations affected by humanitarian crises and forced displacement due to over-crowding, intense social mixing, inadequate water and sanitation, high existing morbidity levels, and limited resources and health care capacity, and challenges implementing recommended public health and social measures to limit transmission. These problems are frequently seen in areas under serious humanitarian crises, and the occurrence of the pandemic will only lead to greater suffer in these regions.
How to respond?
Through the year, the UN has made significant progress in containing the spread of humanitarian crises worldwide. First off, the 8 year conflict in Yemen had reached a new stage. The conflicting parties agreed to a United Nations (UN)-mediated truce on April 2, 2022, which expired on Oct. 2, 2022. More than three months after the truce expired, the UN envoy for Yemen said, “we are witnessing a potential step change” in the conflict’s trajectory though the situation remained “complex and fluid.” According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “While not perfect, the truce enabled a level of stabilization within Yemen and provided a glimpse of a quieter future.”
Additionally, other progress were made to respond to the potential crises in 2023. By acting early, ahead of crises, the UN reduced humanitarian needs and made resources more efficient in dozens of countries, including Ethiopia, Nepal, Somalia and South Sudan. More important steps were taken to empower local response. At least 80% of Humanitarian Country teams included local and national organizations. These organizations receive more than 33% of pooled funding. A particular effort went into empowering women’s organizations. In Afghanistan, for instance, the Afghan Women’s Advisory Group now advises the Humanitarian Country Team, while in Kenya, a network of women-led organizations guide humanitarian drought response. These actions were done for women in specific to help them from the suffer and women and children experienced the most. Humanitarian negotiations to access people in need underpinned humanitarian response in many parts of the world. Country-level negotiations were complemented by high-level diplomacy. For instance, months of negotiation with the Governments of Russia and Ukraine led to a landmark agreement for the passage of grain and other foodstuffs through the Black Sea, which brought relief to millions of people.
What the UN is doing, and what we should be realizing, is that even in today, with the society so well developed and under control, there are still places suffering from different kinds of crises either related or unrelated to us. To bring a solution to these crises, national and international organizations need to call the attention of all individuals on this planet. The political and social crises can only be solved when enough people are aware of them, so that both sides of the conflict can sit down by a table and attempt to carry out a peaceful solution. The natural crises, such as climate changes, requires all people to behave as needed, and follow the national policies regarding these issues. Every one of us is responsible for the peace and construction of a stable society in countries that have not yet achieve such goals.
Reference
“2023 Global Humanitarian Overview Presentation - Global Humanitarian Overview by under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths - Geneva, 1 December 2022 - World.” ReliefWeb, 1 Dec. 2022, reliefweb.int/report/world/2023-global-humanitarian-overview-presentation-global-humanitarian-overview-under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-martin-griffiths-geneva-1-december-2022?_gl=1%2A1ywqhnm%2A_ga%2AMTQ2OTMxNzk0MC4xNjczODczMDU3%2A_ga_E60ZNX2F68%2AMTY3NTQxMTk2OC45LjEuMTY3NTQxMjExOS42MC4wLjA
Authors: Sadiki Kangamina, et al. “Conflict, Epidemic and Faith Communities: Church-State Relations during the Fight against Covid-19 in North-Eastern DR Congo.” BMC, 9 Nov. 2022, www.biomedcentral.com/collections/covid19humanitariancrises.
OCHA, 3 Feb. 2023, www.unocha.org/.
“Yemen Crisis.” UNICEF, 12 Dec. 2022, www.unicef.org/emergencies/yemen-crisis.
“Yemen Humanitarian Crisis.” Center for Disaster Philanthropy, 25 Jan. 2023, disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/yemen-humanitarian-crisis/#:~:text=Since%202015%20when%20the%20conflict,other%20explosive%20remnants%20of%20war