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2023 was one of Islamic Relief’s most demanding years for responding to large-scale emergencies, with earthquakes striking Türkiye, Syria, Morocco, Afghanistan; floods devastating Libya; and severe crises erupting in Gaza and Sudan. Throughout the year, hunger continued to bite amid long-running emergencies in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and Afghanistan. This hunger was exacerbated in some cases by the climate crisis, which continued to worsen in 2023, with more frequent and intense extreme weather events affecting vulnerable communities worldwide.
Global governance and rules-based order continued to deteriorate, making it more difficult to hold leaders and powerful global actors to account through our advocacy work. This deterioration has been accompanied by an erosion of commitments to universal human rights and has led to the emergence of more conflicts. It has also fuelled widening economic inequality within and between countries. The gap between the rich and poor is increasing, and livelihoods have become more precarious for many.
The consequence of all of these challenges means more people around the world now rely on humanitarian aid.
How has Islamic Relief met these challenges?
In 2023, Islamic Relief expanded our emergency response efforts to focus on getting life-saving assistance to more people more quickly after disasters. Through our long-term development programmes, we empowered disadvantaged communities to access jobs, education, healthcare, and food. Taking a communityled approach, we also helped to build resilience through climate change adaptation and mitigation.
We scaled up our advocacy efforts globally and domestically through our member offices to tackle the root causes of poverty, inequality, and social injustice, engaging supporters, communities, and decision-makers to help us achieve this goal. 2023 also saw Islamic Relief grow our family of member and country offices around the world and improve their capacity to fund, design and deliver high-impact programmes.
What could help us do more?
No one organisation can resolve the multifaceted issues facing the world’s most vulnerable people. Many of the challenges Islamic Relief faced in 2023 – which continue into 2024 and beyond – relate to the growing inability of countries to work together towards a shared goal. To reach even more people in need, we need a recommitment to upholding international rulesbased order and to addressing existential challenges through international collaboration.
We need to see more investment in climate change mitigation and adaptation, especially for the poorest countries bearing the brunt of its impacts. We need reforms to the global economic model and tax system to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth and opportunity among the world’s people. And, finally, we need continued efforts to counter closing civil society space and to enable humanitarian access to vulnerable communities.
Islamic Relief is committed to continue joining hands with partners to work towards these goals and towards a fairer world for everyone.