The Global Overview collates information from a wide range of sources and displays this information in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises. Its primary objective is to rapidly inform humanitarian decision makers by presenting a summary of major humanitarian crises, both recent and protracted.

Document Summary

UNDP has a presence on the ground in over 170 countries and territories and decades of concrete development experience in countries ranging from fragile States to middle-income countries like Brazil and Indonesia. This, combined with our four focus areas — poverty reduction and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); democratic governance; crisis prevention and recovery; and environment and sustainable development — make us uniquely situated and qualified to answer the UN’s call for a better and more sustainable future.

FOREWORD

2011 was an important year for the humanitarian community and for OCHA. There was barely a moment when our community was not faced with a relentless series of natural disasters, political crises and chronic emergencies.

But in the midst of this, we achieved something quite remarkable. At the end of December, humanitarian response partners, UN agencies, NGOs and the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement agreed on a series of reforms that focused on making our response efforts faster and more effective.

CONTENTS

FOCUS South Sudan: A new crisis country

ACT

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Sudan: Massive atrocities and displacement in Southern Kordofan

From October 2009 to June 2010, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development is partnering with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide daily school lunches/snacks to approximately 6,200 children attending 8 elementary and preparatory schools in Gaza. This project is helping to improve the overall nutritional status of the children, as well as their academic performance.

The food items used to make the daily

"It's a very bad time for this region, with different disasters, not linked to each other, but coming together in this tragic way," said Mr. Holmes at a press conference organized to brief correspondents on the $74 million flash appeal for the Philippines,

Hope amid the crises

Recently, good news has been in short supply. Journalists and civil society leaders continue to disappear or to be assassinated in the Russian Federation, the situation in the Caucasus remains explosive both in the north (Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia) and the south (Georgia and Nagorny-Kabarach). The crises in Darfur, Somalia and the DRC drag on. More and more often, humanitarians are denied access to populations in distress, and at the same time, they are increasingly the target of violence and banditry, making their work increasingly dangerous.