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OVERVIEW
One in every 23 people in the world is currently in need of humanitarian assistance. Expanding global humanitarian needs, rising operational costs and commodity prices, and high inflation are contributing to a significant rise in the financial requirements to meet that need. Forced displacement shows no sign of slowing: more than 103 million of the world’s population are displaced, and nearly a quarter of all refugees are hosted in least developed countries with little means to assist them. Disasters and extreme weather events, such as flooding and drought, are responsible for the majority of forced displacements worldwide. The growing frequency, intensity, and scope of humanitarian emergencies have dramatically amplified the risks for millions of women and girls in terms of their health needs and their vulnerability to gender-based violence (GBV).
Given this context, UNFPA is accelerating humanitarian action in more than 60 countries, providing humanitarian assistance in its core areas of promoting sexual and reproductive health (SRH), combating GBV, ensuring the informed use of population data for crisis response, and addressing the needs of young people. As a dual-mandate agency, UNFPA works in both the development and humanitarian spheres, programming across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
In December 2022, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that a record 339 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2023 – a significant increase from 274 million people at the beginning of 2022. This year, the United Nations and partner organizations aim to assist 230 million people most in need across 68 countries, which, according to the funding requirements detailed in the various humanitarian response plans, will require $51.5 billion, with UNFPA specifically aiming to reach 66 million people in 65 countries and requiring $1.2 billion. This is a notable increase from the previous year: in 2022, with funding from all sources, UNFPA reached 30 million women, girls, and young people with humanitarian assistance in 50 countries, including providing 22 million people with sexual and reproductive health services.
The Humanitarian Thematic Fund (HTF), a co-financing mechanism launched in late 2018, is a funding source for humanitarian action that provides UNFPA with flexible, multi-year financing to respond to emergency situations, including greater opportunities to react immediately when crises arise and to provide for “bridge” funding to ensure continued delivery of services during gaps of dedicated donor co-financing. As UNFPA’s most flexible humanitarian funding mechanism, the HTF provides timely, strategic, and multi-year financing to support rapid and ongoing humanitarian response and preparedness and to strengthen the humanitarian-development-peace nexus that links humanitarian response to longer-term development initiatives. During 2022, funding from the HTF supported more than 42 UNFPA country offices and regional offices worldwide in responding to the needs of vulnerable people, especially women and girls.