Remarks at the Opening of ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment delivered by the Head and Representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva and Director of the Coordination Division, Ramesh Rajasingham

Remarks delivered on behalf of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths

Geneva, 21 June 2023

As delivered

Thank you very much Mr. Vice President.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths was to be here today, but he missed his connection due to a delayed flight yesterday and he is still en route to Geneva. He regrets his absence and asked me to convey his greetings.

When he spoke to you last year, he warned that a series of mega crisis were driving record levels of humanitarian need and threatening to undo decades of hard-won progress.

As I speak to you today, I regret that these trends have persisted.

We are now experiencing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945. You need look no further than the renewed conflict in Sudan in April this year, and the recent destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine, to just what impacts these and other conflicts are having.

Extreme weather events and climate-related disasters are having an increasingly deleterious impact on people’s lives.

The most severe drought in recent history in the Horn of Africa brought people to the edge of famine and has left more than 30 million people facing acute food insecurity and hunger.

Devastating flooding has hit Pakistan, West and Central Africa, and Central America; and tropical storms such as Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Freddie have battered countries in Southern Africa, destroying homes, lives and livelihoods.

By the end of 2022, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance was a record 349 million. And halfway into 2023 this year, this number has risen a further 10 per cent; 1 in 22 people globally now require assistance.

The number of displaced people also continues to rise. Internally displaced persons have almost tripled over the past decade and reached an all-time high of 71 million this year.

Armed conflicts have killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians in the past year, their suffering compounded by attacks on civilian infrastructure, deliberate starvation, sexual violence, and impediments to humanitarian access.

Women and girls are particularly at risk. 94 per cent of those caught up in crises describe severe or extreme risks of gender-based violence, trafficking and other harmful practices.

And children too continue to bear an unacceptable burden. Millions have lost access to education for prolonged periods. And the risks of trafficking, domestic violence, child labour, child marriage, forced displacement and abduction all increasing.

In the face of these appalling trends, the dedication and commitment of the humanitarian community continues to shine through.

Braving active hostilities, attacks on their person, arbitrary arrests, and movement restrictions, including bans against women – the humanitarian community responded to the urgent needs of 157 million people across 69 countries last year – 79 per cent of those identified to receive aid.

The resilience, expertise and resourcefulness of national staff, local non-governmental organizations and local communities are a particular inspiration.

But the humanitarian system remains under huge amounts of strain. The trends that have brought us here show no signs of slowing.

And with needs growing exponentially, funding is struggling to keep pace. Despite record funding last year, it only amounted to 57 per cent of what was required. So far this year, we have only received 19 per cent.

Even at full stretch, the humanitarian community is unable to reach everyone in need, and where we are able to reach, we are spread too thin.

The imperative to do things differently, more effectively and efficiently, is becoming more urgent every year.

We have taken some notable steps this year:

We played a key role, alongside Türkiye, with the Black Sea Initiative and the related Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the UN. Grain and other products exported under these agreements has contributed hugely to reducing food prices and mitigating the impact on global food insecurity.

It was also a demonstration of the importance of using every available lever to ensure humanitarian access, particularly in the middle of war.

We have also made progress in pursuing more localized and accountable approaches to humanitarian action. Last year, OCHA also used the country-based pooled funds to allocate $364 million to national and local partner organizations. This was about 35 per cent of all allocations, far exceeding the 25 per cent target set in 2016.

This year, we have launched pilot initiatives in four countries – Colombia, Niger, The Philippines and South Sudan – to explore how we can implement more effective humanitarian action at the national and local level.

And we continued to develop and implement early action and anticipatory approaches. Four new anticipatory action activities were launched in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2022. And we successfully triggered anticipatory responses for flooding in Nepal and South Sudan.

Across all our work, the Central Emergency Response Fund and the Country-Based Pooled Funds have truly shown their worth in facilitating flexible and agile responses to emergencies especially pervasive protection issues such as gender-based-violence. I am hugely grateful to all who have contributed and urge all Member States to commit resources to these funds.

But what is clear is the need to do more to address the deepening impact of climate change. Climate change is already profoundly impacting the humanitarian landscape: challenging community resilience, increasing competition for resources, stretching countries’ capacity to recover, and rolling back development gains.

We need much more investment in disaster preparedness, adaption, and climate-resilient infrastructure, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities.

We need a renewed commitment to placing protection at the centre of humanitarian action, particularly for women and girls. As the Secretary-General has said, we have to push back against the push back on women’s rights.

To empower women and women’s organizations as our front-line responders in communities everywhere. And as a community, do everything in our power to prevent and respond to the scourge of gender-based violence.

And if we are to stop the exponential rise in needs and the vast sums required to address them, the international community must take more resolute action to address the underlying causes: stopping and preventing conflicts, reducing economic inequality, and addressing climate change.

I, nor any other member of the humanitarian community, is under any illusion that any of this is easy. It will require long-term commitment and cooperation. But I have no doubt that if we work together, we can reverse the tide and continue on a path to progress.

Over the course of this week and the coming months and years, let us work together with conviction, champion our common goals over our differences, and build a better future all.

Thank you very much.