Attachments
LANDSCAPE OF THE HUMANITARIAN SECTOR
The need for humanitarian assistance is severe, global, and growing. Today, humanitarian crises – events that present a critical threat to the health, safety, security, or wellbeing of a group of people – affect over 125 million people in every region of the globe. This number has almost doubled since 2011.
These crises range from highly-publicized refugee crises like Syria, affecting more than 10 million people and receiving 31% of all humanitarian assistance in 2015, to “forgotten crises” like the armed conflict in Colombia, affecting almost 6 million people and receiving 0.2% of assistance.
Funding is increasing but not fast enough, and not to all places in need. Funding for humanitarian assistance reached a record high of $28 B in 2015, a 40% increase since 2011. However, in the same year the sector also faced the largest recorded shortfall to date (by some accounts) – a 45% gap in UNcoordinated appeals for funds. The donor pool is highly concentrated – three-quarters of all funding comes from 20 government donors, with the top five government donors providing almost half of all funding.
Private foundations contribute a tiny ~1% of total humanitarian assistance. The targets of humanitarian assistance are also becoming increasingly concentrated – in 2015, five crises (in Syria,
Yemen, South Sudan, Iraq, and Sudan) accounted for more than half of all funding allocated to specific emergencies, as opposed to the third of funding the top five crises received in 2011. In contrast, certain “forgotten crises” – such as the Sahwari refugee crisis in Algeria and the ethnic conflicts in Myanmar – are routinely missing from international media headlines and remain underfunded year after year.
Beyond the gaps in funding, the changing nature of crises has created new challenges in the landscape. Crises are increasingly long-term. In 2015, there were 6.7 million refugees living in situations of protracted displacement; the average length of these situations is 26 years. The increasing length of crises necessitates the continued involvement of humanitarian actors – almost 70% of the 58 countries that received humanitarian aid in 2014 were in their 10th straight year of receiving aid. Crises are also increasingly complex, driven by a combination of social, political, and environmental forces, rather than any one issue. Over 95% of crises between 2013 and 2015 were defined as complex emergencies – those characterized by extensive violence and displacement, widespread damage to societies and economies, and / or the hindrance of humanitarian assistance by security risks or political constraints.