Pro Cap: The Inter-Agency Protection Standby Capacity Project Annual Report 2024

Background

The Inter-Agency Protection Standby Capacity Project (ProCap) is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). In reflection of this partnership, the project management team comprises of OCHA in Geneva and Norwegian Capacity (NorCap) in Oslo. Established in 2005, the project seeks to strengthen inter-agency capacity and leadership to deliver on global commitments to ensure that protection is central to humanitarian action.

An independent, inter-agency initiative, ProCap aims to equip Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs) and Humanitarian Country Teams (HCTs) with specialized strategic and technical expertise. ProCap aims to foster a common conceptual understanding of Centrality of Protection (CoP) in humanitarian action. By supporting humanitarian leadership in country, influencing programming and empowering local networks, the project prioritizes capacity development and advocacy, focusing on field practitioners. Additionally, ProCap participates in global policy-level discussions and shares practices and lessons learned, ensuring that the practitioner’s perspective is represented in global forums, inter-agency panels and thematic learning events.

The common vision of ProCap and its sister project, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender Standby Capacity Project (GenCap), is “a world in which all persons affected by humanitarian crises are safe, respected, empowered and protected and humanitarian action prioritizes gender equality and women’s empowerment.” This vision, along with the joint ProCap and GenCap Strategic Framework 2024−2027, is the basis on which the ProCap project focuses its work.

ProCap is governed by an Advisory Group, established in 2019, that provides guidance related to priorities and project implementation. In 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chaired the ProCap Advisory Group.

Humanitarian Landscape

In 2024, humanitarian crises escalated to unprecedented levels, driven by deepening conflicts, intensifying climate disasters, economic downturns, and global geopolitical instability. The year was marked by widespread disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law, with civilians bearing the brunt of armed violence. Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure surged, including the targeting of health facilities, schools, and essential services. Mass displacement continued to rise, with nearly 123 million people forcibly displaced by mid-year, marking the twelfth consecutive annual increase1. In Sudan alone, the world’s largest displacement crisis unfolded, with over 11 million internally displaced and 3.1 million f leeing across international borders. Meanwhile, Gaza witnessed more women and children killed than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades2, while Ukraine recorded an average of 16 child casualties per week since 2022.

Despite overwhelming needs, the humanitarian operating space shrank significantly. Humanitarian workers, particularly local and national responders, were targeted in record numbers— killed, detained, or harassed in conflicts from Haiti through Myanmar, Sudan to Palestine, and beyond. Aid delivery was increasingly obstructed, instrumentalized, and politicized, hampering access to life-saving assistance. The erosion of respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law (IHRL) seemed to be among the most severe in recent history. Reports suggest that this erosion, coupled with impunity contributed to mass atrocities, gender-based violence, and deliberate starvation tactics.

The intersection of conflict, economic collapse, and climate crises further deepened protection risks. By 2024, over 280 million people faced acute food insecurity, with famine conditions spreading in Sudan and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt)5. Climate-induced disasters surged, displacing millions and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable. The world came perilously close to breaching 1.5ºC warming, exacerbating extreme weather events, from the Horn of Africa’s relentless droughts to the Sahel’s catastrophic floods6. The climate crisis and armed conflict increasingly overlapped, as seen in Gaza, where emissions from four months of war exceeded the annual emissions of 26 countries.

As the humanitarian system struggled to meet the growing needs, funding shortfalls widened, forcing aid organizations to make impossible choices between life-saving priorities. The 2025 global humanitarian appeal requires $47 billion to assist nearly 190 million people across 72 countries, yet without sufficient resources, human suffering will only escalate.