Geneva/New York, December 4, 2024 – A record 305 million people living in scores of countries worldwide will need life-saving assistance in 2025, but only 190 million will receive the aid because of the lack of funding, the principal United Nations humanitarian organization said as it launched an appeal for $47.4 billion in humanitarian aid for next year.

Tom Fletcher, the newly appointed Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) said in his office in Geneva that the appeal will provide humanitarian assistance to 190 million people in 32 countries and nine refugee-hosting regions.

Fletcher said the staggering 305 million people needing humanitarian aid are victims of “multiple unending conflicts,” from climate change and conflicts to the glaring disregard for long-established international humanitarian law.

The 305 million people in need live in countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, Middle East and North Africa West and Central Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean countries.

“The world is on fire,” said Fletcher, as reported by OCHA. “We are dealing with a polycrisis right now globally and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price. We are dealing with the impact of conflicts – multiple conflicts – and crises of longer duration and of more intense ferocity.”

He said the lack of funding is just one of the reasons why, in countries where populations have endured decades of violence and instability, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“In DRC, as with all these conflicts, we are ready to do more, it’s our mission to do more,” Fletcher said. “My people are desperate to get out there and deliver because they really are on the frontline. They can see what is needed but we need these resources. That’s our call to action and we also need the world to do more; those with power to do more, to challenge this era of impunity and to challenge this era of indifference.”

Fletcher, a former UK diplomat, warned that the appeal for $47.4 billion will face difficulty because of the change in geopolitical landscape due to numerous national and presidential elections during 2024, which resulted in new government leaders who may not support UN programs.

“it’s not just about America,” he said. “We’re facing the election of a number of governments who will be more questioning of what the United Nations does…But I don’t believe that we can’t make that case to them; I don’t believe that that there isn’t compassion in these governments which are getting elected.”

OCHA said Fletcher spoke to journalists in Geneva after his office released the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 pointing out that communities continue to be confronted with multiple crises.

“It’s not just the fact of so many conflicts at the same time, it’s the duration of those conflicts; the average length is 10 years,” he said. “We’re not closing off conflicts before the next ones are starting. And the fact that those conflicts are so ferocious and the impact on civilians is so dramatic. I mentioned Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine as examples of that, with this disregard of international law and in every case, obstruction of our work.”

Alarming gap in humanitarian assistance – millions will receive no support, says the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) press release – Statement by Camilla Waszink, Director of Partnership and Policy at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), commenting on the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) for 2025:

“The Global Humanitarian Overview reflects an alarming gap between the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance globally, and the number we are able to support. It is devastating to know that millions of people in need will not receive necessary assistance next year because of the growing lack of funding for the humanitarian response. With a record number of conflicts ongoing, donors are cutting aid budgets that displaced and conflict-affected people rely on to survive.”

“At a time when the richest people on earth can go to space as a tourist and trillions of US dollars are used annually on global military expenditure, it is incomprehensible that we as an international community are unable to find the necessary funding to provide displaced families with shelter and prevent children from dying of hunger.

“There is an urgent need for a revamp of global solidarity. Existing donor countries must ensure assistance keeps pace with needs and inflation, and emerging economies should compete to become among the most generous donors in the same way they compete to host expensive international sports events.

“Donors must also ensure necessary support for the most neglected and underfunded crises, so that money is not taken from the assistance to people in places like Sudan or Mali, to meet needs in Ukraine or Gaza.

“Conflicts and a blatant disregard for protection of civilians are driving massive humanitarian needs. It is essential that donors provide funding, but they must also invest in ending conflicts, bringing violations to a halt and preventing new needs from developing.”

NRC said about the appeal for 2025: “Realistically, given announced and expected funding cuts from major donors and the fact that the 2024 appeal is still less than 44 per cent funded, we expect the number of people reached to be even lower.”

“The military spending globally reached 2.44 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023 (Statista).

Since last year, there has been a change in how numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance are calculated. The UN has adopted a narrower definition of “humanitarian needs” than in previous years to offer what it believes is a more realistic assessment of priorities. It is thus important to be aware that the relatively stable figure of people in need of humanitarian assistance compared to last year (305 million now vs 300 million last year) does not mean that humanitarian needs are unchanged or have improved – on the contrary, many places the situation has worsened significantly.”

 (By J. Tuyet Nguyen)

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