Executive Summary
The gap between humanitarian needs and the resources available to meet them continues to grow.
This document sets out inter-agency appeals requesting $16.4 billion to assist 57.5 million people in 22 countries in 2015.
In 2014, three major crises with significant regional impact – Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria – dominated humanitarian response efforts. These, in addition to Iraq, are the highest level (L3) crises declared by the humanitarian community. They will continue to require significant humanitarian assistance in 2015.
Due to the conflict in Syria, essential infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. 191,000 people were killed and more than 12.2 million people require urgent assistance, including over five million children.
Some 7.6 million people are internally displaced and another 3.2 million are refugees in neighbouring countries. Whilst the search continues for a political solution to the crisis, humanitarian organizations will do all they can to reach as many people as possible with life-saving assistance.
In 2014, conflict and insecurity in Iraq displaced over 2.1 million people across the country. Some 5.2 million people are in need of aid, 2.2 million of them in areas under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), where humanitarian agencies have little or no humanitarian access. The outbreak of violence in South Sudan forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes in 2014. Close to 500,000 of these have sought refuge in neighbouring countries and 1.4 million are internally displaced. 1.5 million people are severely food insecure.
In CAR, outbreaks of violence have prompted large-scale displacements of people and spikes in humanitarian needs. A quarter of the population (over one million people) has either been displaced by the conflict within CAR or has been forced to flee across the borders.
In addition to the L3 emergencies, long term crises caused by conflict, violence and natural disasters, including droughts and floods, mean that millions of people across the world will need humanitarian assistance in 2015 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan,
Afghanistan, Ukraine, Myanmar and elsewhere.
Haiti and the Philippines are the only two countries in the appeals for 2014 which are no longer included in the global appeal for 2015. In Haiti, the Government, together with the UN and its partners, is preparing a Transitional Appeal (2015-2016) guiding both humanitarian action and resilience-building. In the Philippines, the Government announced the end of the humanitarian phase of the Haiyan response on 4 July 2014.
As needs increase, humanitarian organizations continue to look at ways to become more effective and efficient.
Improved needs assessment and analysis, strategic planning and prioritization helped humanitarian organizations target their resources on the most vulnerable. Humanitarian country teams are taking a more holistic and integrated approach to address needs, for instance by looking at the humanitarian and development resources available and aligning the two. This is the approach used in oPt and Somalia. In countries where conflict or lack of infrastructure is increasing delivery costs, humanitarian organizations are pre-positioning items or extending cash programming.
And in countries of protracted crisis with a complex mix of humanitarian and development challenges, country teams are distinguishing between acute, urgent humanitarian needs and chronic needs that require longer term solutions.
And they recognize that strengthening the link between emergency preparedness, response and development is key to building the resilience of people affected by crisis and supporting governments in preparing to deal with future shocks. In Somalia and Iraq, for example, humanitarian country teams have developed multi-year plans. Putting people and their needs at the heart of humanitarian response involves continuous communication with communities affected by crisis. This is supported by recent technological developments, such as the KoBo Toolbox.
Significant efforts are being made to ensure that the specific needs of women, children and other vulnerable groups are integrated into humanitarian response efforts. For example, in South Sudan camp coordinators and local NGO staff hold regular discussions with displaced people in camps to identify cases of harassment and sexual violence. As a result responses tailored to address these protection concerns have been incorporated in programmes.
