In 2023, ReliefWeb, the leading source of humanitarian information, remained committed in its mission to inform humanitarians worldwide. The platform experienced a deeper engagement, with 18.2 million users interacting more actively with the content. This increased interaction, despite an 11% decrease in overall users, indicates a higher investment and activity level among ReliefWeb users. During this year, several significant humanitarian crises unfolded:
- In Türkiye and Syria, two devastating earthquakes in February 2023, measuring 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale, disrupted the lives of 9.1 million people in Türkiye and 8.8 million people in Syria.
- Tropical Cyclone Freddy in February 2023 caused widespread damage across Southern Africa, affecting 2.7 million people, and displacing 916,000 across Malawi, Madagascar, and Mozambique.
- In Sudan, conflict that started in April 2023 led to the displacement of 8.1 million people, creating the largest displacement crisis in the world. The crisis escalated rapidly, with about 25 million people, including more than 14 million children, needing humanitarian assistance and support.
- Tropical Cyclone Mocha swept through Myanmar in May 2023, leaving trails of devastation for 3.4 million people living in high impact zones.
- The conflict in Palestine began in October 2023. The United Nations estimates $1.2 billion is needed to meet the critical needs of 2.7 million people in Gaza and the West Bank.
- The Ukrainian conflict continued. More than 14.6 million people – about 40 per cent of the Ukrainian population living in Ukraine – will need humanitarian assistance in 2024.
ReliefWeb played a crucial role in providing timely and accurate information about these crises, helping to shape the narrative and inform response efforts every day.
ReliefWeb’s reports section, the heart of its humanitarian information platform, received 14.3 million users. Users were not just passive observers but active participants, as evidenced by a higher proportion of visitors downloading reports. They consume these information products to conduct deep analysis, to report on the crises in the media. The jobs section also saw an increase in users to 2.2 million: more people were looking to actively contribute to humanitarian work.
Geographically, there were shifts in user-engagement patterns. While there were decreases in the number of users in the United States, the Philippines and India, there were substantial increases in the Netherlands and Germany. Crises are dynamic by nature, as shown by the shift in report views, with countries such as Nigeria, India, Iraq, and Uganda disappearing from the top 20 most-read country reports, while readership for Palestine, Türkiye, Libya, and South Sudan increased.
In terms of the volume of content by source, UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Amnesty International, International Rescue Committee (IRC), and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), entered the top 30 organizations for the first time. There was an increase in reports published for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Protection Cluster, and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). ReliefWeb commits to diversifying reliable information sources.
In conclusion, 2023 was a year of resilience and engagement for ReliefWeb and its users. The increased interaction and commitment from our users, particularly the humanitarian workers, who both contribute to and utilize our content, have been truly inspiring. As we move forward, we remain steadfast in our commitment to inform humanitarians worldwide, serving as a reliable source of information in the face of global crises.