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As delivered
A warm welcome to everyone here and of course online to this important event.
The last time I was in Ethiopia, a few weeks ago, I met a group of women in Mekelle, in Tigray, all of them survivors of sexual assault.
These attacks that we have read so much and clearly about in the months before.
It was a very difficult and also very touching encounter.
It was very difficult to talk to each other and deal with such trauma that is still visible in their faces, in their remarks and in their behavior.
But what struck me the most was her answer to the question when we finally asked her: Tell us what you want for your children. And the kids were running around in the safe room where we met.
They didn’t talk about education for their children or safety. They said their biggest concern was the food. I wondered if these women had lost all hope or future. Her focus was only on daily survival.
The usual answer to these questions is to talk about education for their children and a better life and future. But not from these women. These women did not have such a horizon. They said their concern is food for today and food for tomorrow.
They had lost that sense of hope or progress that was so natural to our humanity, or perhaps they weren’t even aware of it, because of the events that had brought them there and the conflict that kept them there. Their focus was exclusively and brutally on daily survival.
Crises like the one in northern Ethiopia, which led to their suffering, can of course only be resolved through political solutions. But today, as we present the Global Humanitarian Overview 2022 referred to by the Secretary-General, it is my aim that this appeal can help bring a ray of hope back to these women and many others of their kind around the world.
The message from this year’s GHO is urgent. As we heard from the Secretary General, humanitarian needs are still growing.
At the beginning of this year, in 2021, 235 million people were in need of humanitarian aid, and we estimate the number will rise to 274 million in 2022.
This means a doubling of the requirements in the last four years. And those numbers will inevitably continue to grow as the year progresses.
To give us all a sense of the extent of this challenge: If all those in need of emergency aid lived in one country, it would be the fourth largest country in the world.
This is what we are facing, and more importantly, this is what they are facing.
The GHO 2022 encompasses the world’s largest humanitarian appeal of all time, worth $ 4.47 billion for Afghanistan, closely followed by appeals in Syria and Yemen.
We are all familiar with the drivers of these global needs. There is nothing particularly new.
It is conflict, political instability, the growing climate crisis and the impact of the pandemic that recently reminded us of their presence.
Instability has worsened in several parts of the world this year, especially in Ethiopia, which I mentioned, Myanmar – sometimes forgotten, and now of course in Afghanistan, during ongoing conflicts – and I have two of them in Syria and Yemen mentioned, but there are many others – continue.
The magnitude of the climate crisis means that no corner of the world is immune to intensifying weather-related shocks. COVID-19 has already claimed the lives of at least 1.9 million people in the countries affected by this appeal, while at the same time contributing to increasing poverty and disrupting the economy and basic services.
I believe the World Bank had estimated that 20 million more people were pushed into the poverty line as a result of the pandemic. And a shocking fact is that every three months of the full lockdown, there are an estimated 15 million more incidents of gender-based violence, which is a terrifying statistic.
Countries with humanitarian emergencies remain the most vulnerable to a new variant like Omicron, due, of course, to their lack of vaccines and the extent to which we have not achieved vaccination equity and a slow recovery from the shock of 2020.
Taken together, these diverse forces have forcibly displaced a significant portion of the world’s population – 1 percent of the world’s population is displaced – and 45 million people in 43 countries are on the verge of famine.
In most crises – and this is not news – women and girls suffer the most, as existing gender inequalities and protection risks are exacerbated by crises.
In the event of a crisis, the communities themselves are always and everywhere the first to react on the front line. They are the first responders, and I saw this vividly on my visits to northern Ethiopia, where camps for internally displaced persons were maintained thanks to the generosity of the surrounding communities.
The people in these communities sold their property in order to maintain solidarity with their compatriots.
We in the international community are here to show solidarity with these communities and those in need, and of course we must and do to get involved when our help is needed.
Looking ahead, the GHO 2022 sets out how we can support 183 million of the world’s most vulnerable people – a conscious reduction of the 274 million – at a cost of $ 41 billion, up 17 percent from last year is equivalent to. It is the world’s largest appeal for hunger, deadly disease, gender-based violence, and most importantly, economic collapse.
It contains detailed plans to meet food security and nutrition needs; Bless you; Water, sanitation and hygiene; Gender equality; Protection and education; Protection; and other important items in the hardest hit countries.
And it is the result of a lengthy process of detailed analysis by our colleagues on site in the various countries for which these response plans were drawn up. These are objective evaluations by professionals. This is not a guess.
This year, in 2021, we wanted to reach 153 million people through country-level plans. Thanks to the generosity of many of you here, we have achieved 70 percent of this goal. 107 million people have been recipients and beneficiaries of our partners in these countries and have received help from all the agencies, many of which are here today.
The funds we have received and the generosity behind it have enabled us to provide emergency medical services to millions of people. In Yemen alone, with the efforts of WHO and other agencies, we have reached 10 million people with outpatient care.
This enabled us to reach 2.4 million people in 39 countries with gender protection services, including prevention, risk reduction and response. I would like to point out that the shelter aid so badly needed by women is often the least financed sector and needs more of our attention.
It helped us fight acute hunger in six vulnerable countries in 2021: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, southern Madagascar, a newcomer on that terrible list, northeast Nigeria, southern Sudan, and Yemen. This included saving over half a million people in South Sudan from the brink of famine.
And it has enabled us to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in cash aid – a phenomenon that over the years we will see more and more as an effective delivery method in many, many places – to families in need in most emergency situations. Cash benefits give these families back the right to set their own priorities.
This year, too, we made progress in important areas.
We saw improved collaboration between international agencies and local forces at the forefront. I am very grateful to the agencies for that.
Agencies that are founded to give their own profile, to contribute their own know-how, to run their own projects, but which result in cooperation in a way that we rarely see in international companies, and that’s me international community grateful for it.
We have made sure that humanitarian aid is geared towards the needs of women and girls and people with disabilities – and there is more to be done – and that it supports overlooked sectors – I mentioned protection, but also emergency education, which is especially important when it comes to education for displaced persons.
More country teams from these agencies gave priority to protection against sexual exploitation and abuse. A topic of paramount importance to those of us who have a duty of care for the actions of our employees and with whom we work.
In many places, our lobbying and negotiating efforts to secure access have paid off, although reaching people in need remains one of our greatest challenges, and we plan to do better and smarter in the coming year.
We need to keep the momentum going on all of these issues.
But the funding of the GHO is a measure of our global solidarity for these women and so many like them.
Through your generosity, commitment, and action, let us restore hope to the people we serve. Let’s do this for them and for all of us.
Thanks very much.
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