HQ Team
December 2, 2022: A staggering $51.5 billion is needed next year to protect 230 million of the world’s most vulnerable people, the UN stated.
Needs are “shockingly high,” said Martin Griffith, the UN’s top emergency relief official. It was very likely that this year’s emergencies would continue into 2023, he said.
“The needs are going up because we’ve been smitten by the war in Ukraine, by Covid-19, by climate,” he said at the unveiling of the Global Humanitarian Overview report 2023.
“I fear that 2023 is going to be an acceleration of all those trends, and that’s why we say … that we hope 2023 will be a year of solidarity, just as 2022 has been a year of suffering.”
He said that the appeal for funds, which is 25% higher than this year, is a “lifeline” for people on the brink.
Drought, floods
Several countries have been hit by lethal droughts and floods, from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa. In addition, the war in Ukraine had “turned a part of Europe into a battlefield,” Griffiths said.
More than 100 million people are now displaced worldwide. “And all of this on top of the devastation left by the pandemic among the world’s poorest.”
If the humanitarian outlook for 2023 is so grim, it is mainly because relief demands are already so high.
At least “222 million people … will face acute food insecurity in 53 countries by the end of this year,” Griffiths said.
In 2023, 45 million people in 37 countries will risk starvation, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview.
Vulnerable communities also face pressure on several fronts, including health, as medical providers struggle to recover after COVID-19. The mpox or monkeypox and other vector-borne diseases continue, along with outbreaks of Ebola and cholera is ongoing, according to the report.
Lack of food
Five countries “are already experiencing what we call famine-like conditions, where we can confidently and unhappily say that people are dying as a result … of displacement, food insecurity, lack of food, starvation,” Griffiths said.
Climate change is also driving up risks and vulnerability in line with concerns that extreme heat could claim as many lives as cancer by the end of the century.
In 2022 UN-led Global Humanitarian appeal is only 47% funded — a sharp drop from earlier years when funding levels used to reach between 60 and 65%.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization needs $1.9 billion to reach 48 million people who rely on agriculture and subsistence farming, with lifesaving and livelihood assistance in 2023. Acute food insecurity continues to escalate globally, it stated.
