Conference primer: Humanitarian Affairs, Refugees and Migration: 2023

More than half of the population in Syria is facing hunger as the country grapples with 12 years of war and recent devastating earthquakes, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Tuesday.
UN News, 14 March 2023

GENEVA (AP) — A Russian delegation at talks with senior U.N. officials said Monday that Moscow is ready to accept an extension to a grain export deal that has helped bring down global food prices amid the war in Ukraine — but only for 60 days as the Kremlin holds out for changes to how the arrangement is working.
AP News, 13 March 2023

The pledges amount to more than half of the USD 1.5 billion required to deliver on ECW’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan to reach 20 million children and adolescents over the next four years.
Donors include Canada, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Spain, and the UK, as well as the Global Business Coalition and the Zürcher Kantonalbank.
IISD News, 1 March 2023

Lifesaving aid is needed urgently to help millions of people enduring one of the longest and most severe droughts on record in the Horn of Africa, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday, as the region enters its sixth consecutive rainy season with no rain.
UN News, 28 February 2023

The head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) concluded a visit on Saturday to devastated Syrian and Turkish communities and aid supply routes, calling on authorities to open more border crossings to help survivors of the earthquakes that hit both countries in early February.
UN News, 25 February 2023

The Taliban have barred women from universities and many workplaces, compelling several aid organisations to pause operations in Afghanistan and donors to contemplate cuts to assistance. Yet the principled response remains to mitigate the harm these harsh rulings are doing to the most vulnerable Afghans.
Crisis Group, 23 February 2023

Education Cannot Wait has raised $826 million toward its global work supporting children affected by war, climate disasters, and other humanitarian crises to get an education, meeting about half the fund’s overall target and disappointing advocates.
Devex, 20 February 2023

A total of 282 United Nations trucks transporting aid for earthquake victims in northwest Syria have passed through three border crossings with Türkiye over the past two weeks, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
UN News, 22 February 2023

Around the world, 222 million children are having their education disrupted by war, disaster, political unrest and displacement. This number has more than tripled since 2016, driven by escalating conflict, protracted crises, the impacts of climate change and Covid-19.
Roughly 78 million of those children are out of school altogether, according to Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations’ global fund for education in emergencies.
Geneva Solutions, 17 February 2023

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners are seeking $84 million to provide humanitarian and development assistance to over one million migrants in the Horn of Africa and communities hosting them.
UN News, 16 February 2023

The UN launched a $1.3 billion appeal on Thursday to help six million people severely affected by conflict, disease, and disaster in northeast Nigeria.
UN News, 16 February 2023

The United Nations on Thursday launched a $1 billion appeal for Türkiye to assist more than five million people affected by the cataclysmic earthquakes last week, the largest to hit the country in a century.
UN News, 16 February 2023

Almost a year since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UN appealed on Wednesday for $5.6 billion to help millions of people affected inside the war-torn country and beyond.
UN News, 15 February 2023

The UN Secretary-General on Tuesday announced a $397 million humanitarian appeal to aid the people of earthquake-ravaged Syria, to help secure “desperately needed” relief for nearly five million people.
UN News, 14 February 2023

GENÈVE - Le Conseil européen extraordinaire qui se tiendra demain à Bruxelles est l’occasion pour les dirigeants de l’Union européenne de réaffirmer leur solidarité et leur soutien envers tous les réfugiés. En ouvrant leurs portes aux réfugiés fuyant l’Ukraine, les États de l’UE ont clairement démontré leur capacité à adopter une approche structurée et efficace en matière de protection et d’inclusion en Europe. C’est là exactement le type de leadership et d’action collective qui sont nécessaires pour relever les défis mondiaux de notre époque dans le domaine du déplacement forcé.
Aussi en anglais, espagnol et arabe
UNHCR France, 8 février 2023

The funds decided by the government cover Switzerland’s contribution to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for 2023-2024.
Article available in Arabic as well.
Swissinfo, 1 February 2023

A UN-led group of humanitarians are hoping that the Taliban will allow Afghan women to again work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground following last month’s ban, four senior aid officials told journalists in New York on Monday.
UN News, 30 January 2023

Two-and-a-half billion dollars: that’s how much funding the UN World Health Organization (WHO) will need across its operations this year, it said on Monday, to help a record number of people facing disease and starvation.
UN News, 23 January 2023

The World Food Program seems poised to carry on, driving NGOs to call it quits on aid.
Foreign Policy News, 20 January 2023

L'Initiative céréalière de la mer Noire, négociée par l'ONU et signée en juillet dernier dans un contexte de pénurie mondiale et de hausse des prix exacerbée par la guerre en Ukraine, a maintenant permis à 17,8 millions de tonnes de céréales et d’autres denrées alimentaires d'atteindre des millions de personnes dans le monde.
UN News, 19 January 2023

Countries pledged more than $9 billion at a conference in Geneva on Monday aimed at helping Pakistan recover from last year’s devastating floods.
The conference came two months after Pakistan and other countries most vulnerable to climate change succeeded in their call for the establishment of a loss and damage fund at the Cop27 summit.
Geneva Solutions, 10 January 2023

As humanitarian needs soar to unprecedented levels, top UN officials on Friday highlighted the importance of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) in supporting emergencies and responding rapidly to crises.
UN News, 9 December 2022

Funds will support essential programs for over 110 million children across 155 countries and territories through 2023.
Available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
UNICEF News, 5 December 2022

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will launch the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) 2023 in Geneva on Thursday, 1 December 2022, with subsequent presentations in Addis Ababa in partnership with the African Union, and in Riyadh in partnership with King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre -KSrelief.
UN Web TV, 1 December 2022

Shrinking the funding gap, humanitarian have-nots, murky targets, and slow reforms: Unpacking the numbers behind another record-breaking appeal.
The New Humanitarian, 1 December 2022