Each year, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) publishes the Emergency Watchlist, a report categorizing the countries with the highest risk of humanitarian emergencies.
This year, the top 10 ranked countries (in order of most at risk) are Sudan, Occupied Palestinian territory, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Mali, Somalia, Niger, Ethiopia, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In the forward, IRC’s President and CEO David Miliband clearly states that humanitarian needs have multiplied. He says, “We are seeing an overwhelming concentration of humanitarian crises in Watchlist countries, pushed by factors including the rise in violent coups, the failure to uphold international humanitarian law, exposure to climate risk, and increase in public debt matched with diminishing international support. While only accounting for about 10% of the world’s population, Watchlist countries account for 86% of all people in humanitarian need globally and approximately 70% of displaced people, and those suffering from severe food insecurity—and a growing share of global extreme poverty.” That is why the Emergency Watchlist is so crucial and IRC’s recommendations are even more important.
With this much data about the crises, what has slowed humanitarian response? The report identifies five common myths surrounding humanitarian aid that have dominated the news cycle and driven policy decisions. The report dives in to dispel these myths with proven, fact-based solutions.
Read on to learn how governments, regional actors, and donors like you can come together to break the cycle of crisis. Then, support the International Rescue Committee’s work with a donation in your workplace. Your gift will support proven humanitarian aid solutions for the world’s most at-risk communities.
The following is an excerpt from the Emergency Watchlist, reposted and edited with permission from International Rescue Committee. To read the report in full, click here.
THE MYTHS: Obscuring Real and Proven Solutions
The international community should know how to respond effectively to the human impact of the crises in Watchlist countries by now, even if it cannot resolve the root causes. Conflicts in Watchlist countries have lasted an average of 13 years. The growing scale of humanitarian needs in these countries shows that the international community is still unprepared—and sometimes even unwilling—to respond effectively to these crises.
Governments of wealthy countries, the U.N., regional bodies, and private and institutional donors have a unique power and responsibility to prevent and address humanitarian crises. However, a set of myths has taken hold of the policy and media discourse about these crises. As a result, decision makers in these bodies are turning to the wrong solutions. In some cases, they are becoming overwhelmed by daunting statistics and assume that there are no solutions at all. The result is insufficient, ineffective or even counterproductive action, which can make crises worse.
These myths are superficially attractive because they are often politically expedient, shift the burden of responsibility to others, or excuse countries and communities with power and resources from their legal, moral and ethical obligations to communities in need. Busting these myths and replacing them with facts opens the doorway to better solutions that respond more effectively and break the cycle of crisis.
MYTH 1: Humanitarian access can be measured in truckloads of supplies alone.
FACT: Meaningful humanitarian access is about communities having ongoing access to the services they require to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. When reporting focuses purely on the number of trucks on the move, not what they are delivering or the feasibility of effective humanitarian action at the other end, it becomes harder to make the case for meaningful access.
Humanitarian access is both the ability of humanitarian actors to reach populations affected by crisis and the ability of affected populations to access humanitarian assistance and services. Moving trucks of supplies will never be enough if they are not carrying the right supplies or humanitarians cannot deliver programming at their destination. Delivering bags of flour to a community will achieve nothing if families lack water to make bread or fuel to cook it. And a truckload of medicines will not help people in a town where airstrikes have destroyed all the hospitals.
Timeliness of assistance is also critical. When an earthquake struck Türkiye and Syria in February 2023, it was vital to get humanitarian assistance to where it was needed, via the fastest possible routes. Damage to roads in both Türkiye and Syria meant that it wasn’t possible to move enough aid through the Bab al-Hawa crossing that had provided a lifeline for 4 million people living in opposition-controlled areas of northwest Syria before the earthquake. However, it took a week for the U.N. Emergency Relief Chief to secure agreement from the Syrian government to allow the U.N. and other actors to use two other crossings from Türkiye and to move supplies cross-line from government-controlled areas of Syria. As a result, many Syrians were denied lifesaving assistance when they needed it most.
Later in 2023, Israel announced a “complete siege” of Gaza after October 7, stopping all food, water and fuel from entering the area from Israel or via the Rafah crossing with Egypt. It subsequently resumed a limited water supply to southern Gaza and started to allow a few trucks of aid to enter Gaza via Rafah, between 10 and around 100 per day, from October 21. However, these truckloads of supplies had a very limited impact for two reasons. Firstly, Israel continued to block the entry of fuel needed to transport the aid onwards to where it was most needed within Gaza. Then, secondly, continued massive airstrikes throughout Gaza meant it wasn’t safe for people to attempt to deliver or reach humanitarian assistance, and that no aid could reach the worst-affected areas in northern Gaza.
We have seen this misconception elsewhere in recent years, like in the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia. Reporting focused on the number of trucks allowed to enter Tigray. But aid convoys only entered after the cessation of hostilities, not when they were most needed. Humanitarian assistance and protection are complex operations requiring ongoing engagement with communities to understand their needs, monitoring to ensure assistance is delivered correctly and timely, uninterrupted access to supplies and services. Pressure for parties to a conflict to allow meaningful humanitarian access risks dissipating if reporting focuses only on what can easily be measured—the number of trucks—not what is important: whether communities have the aid and services they need to survive and rebuild their lives. Allowing a few trucks through, but blocking essential supplies when most needed, is often a cynical ploy to reduce diplomatic pressure on parties to the conflict to allow meaningful access.
MYTH 2: If you don’t work with governments, you can’t get anything done.
FACT: Governments are an important partner for promoting development, but it is critical to have other options when governments are unable or unwilling to play this role. Otherwise, whole communities—even some countries—are denied access to critical development opportunities.
National governments have primary responsibility to establish and maintain the systems and infrastructure to build resilience and protect their citizens from shocks. Understandably, therefore, the World Bank and other multilateral and bilateral development actors rely on government-focused approaches for partnerships and implementation. This approach works well in many places, but not all.
Governments in many Watchlist countries may not have the intent or capability to partner with the World Bank, particularly in areas where nonstate armed groups (NSAGs) are active. IRC research reveals that World Bank projects in multiple Watchlist countries regularly face geographical restrictions, temporary suspensions or termination altogether, especially in areas under the control or influence of NSAGs. In Somalia, for example, armed-group activity and fighting led to restrictions in a water distribution project aiming at improving water access to 35,000 people. The map shows that World Bank projects are located mostly in areas under the control of the Somali government, systematically excluding other areas that typically have increased humanitarian and protection needs.
There are alternative solutions focused on expanding partnerships with non-governmental entities, as recognized by the World Bank’s recent Evolution Roadmap. Such approaches are essential in areas experiencing conflict or are outside central government control. The number of people living in proximity to conflict has doubled between 2007 and 2020. Despite the growing need for approaches suited to these challenging contexts, solutions remain rare.
MYTH 3: The U.S. and Europe are already hosting more than their “fair share” of displaced people and shouldn’t be expected to receive any more.
FACT: Watchlist countries and their neighbors are home to 79% of non-Ukrainian refugees and displaced people globally; the U.S. and Europe host just 8%—yet they are setting a tone that normalizes closing borders.
As violence drags on, needs grow, and livelihoods are destroyed by the convergence of conflict, climate change and economic turmoil, it is little surprise that growing numbers of people make the painful decision to flee their homes. The number of forcibly displaced people in the world passed 110 million in 2023 for the first time since records began.
European countries have demonstrated the effective role they can play in refugee assistance and protection by hosting nearly 6 million Ukrainian refugees. The response to the crisis in Ukraine sets a benchmark for what the world can do to respond to forced displacement crises. But the U.S. and Europe are not meeting this benchmark for people fleeing other crises. The U.S. and Europe host 99% of displaced Ukrainians, but only 8% of all non-Ukrainian refugees and displaced people.
In the meantime, 79% of non-Ukrainian refugees and displaced people globally are living in Watchlist countries and their neighbors, mostly less-developed countries. There are 51 displaced people per 1,000 in Watchlist countries and their neighbors, more than double the 23 per 1,000 in the U.S. and Europe.
The myth that the U.S. and European countries are facing a displacement “crisis” is driven by rhetoric, not reality. But this rhetoric has a real-world impact. Instead of acting to address these drivers and improve the response to humanitarian crises, the world is enforcing harsh border controls and failing to provide safe havens for migrants. The U.S. and many European countries are enforcing ever-tighter border and asylum rules, providing cover for other countries to do the same. For example, as the conflict in Sudan escalated, Egypt made it ever harder for Sudanese people to flee to safety.
MYTH 4: Cutting emissions and restricting the rise of global temperatures is so important that we can’t afford to spend money on adapting to climate change.
FACT: Even if the world achieves its most ambitious goals of curbing global warming to 1.5°C and emissions to net zero, people in Watchlist countries will still have to live with the current climate crisis—particularly flooding and droughts. But this myth means that inadequate resources are being invested in supporting countries like those on the Emergency Watchlist to adapt to climate change.
The impacts of the climate crisis are already being felt in Watchlist countries, with the increasing frequency of cyclones in Myanmar and the record drought in East Africa that finally came to an end in 2023. Our Earth is about 1.1°C warmer than pre-industrial levels—reaching 1.8°C in September 2023—and Watchlist countries are already seeing the worst effects of the climate crisis. So even if global leaders achieve net zero and keep global warming to no more than 1.5° C, the impacts on Watchlist countries will continue to get worse and they will still need support adapting to these impacts.
Neglecting investments in adaptation efforts unjustly excludes Watchlist countries from building resilience to fight the climate crisis they face today. Only 7% of global climate financing is directed toward adaptation. The outsize impact of Cyclone Mocha when it hit areas outside government control in Myanmar demonstrated the importance of preparing even where it is hard to do so. Examples from the IRC’s work supporting seed systems in northeast Syria—an area outside of the government’s control—show it’s possible to make resiliency and adaptation solutions work for the reality of Watchlist countries.
MYTH 5: Gender inequality is not a matter of life and death.
FACT: Gender inequality is life threatening to women and girls. It blocks effective humanitarian action, particularly to meet the needs of women and girls.
Each crisis affects women and girls differently and disproportionately in ways that threaten their lives and livelihoods. There were 149.8 million more hungry women than men in 2021. The U.N. Environment Programme estimates that around 80% of those displaced by climate change are women and girls. And too often, patriarchal gender norms prevent women and girls from accessing the services they need to survive. In December 2022, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA)—commonly known as the Taliban—barred Afghan women from working for NGOs. But given existing restrictions on the movement of Afghan women, humanitarian organizations depended on female staff to safely and effectively reach women and girls and conduct needs assessments in ways that their male colleagues cannot. This edict made it so impossible to perform the most basic tasks of service delivery that the IRC and other humanitarian organizations had to suspend operations. Since then, the IRC has resumed 80% of its operations, but they are dependent on informal and irregular IEA exemptions to the ban.
Despite these trends, programs targeting the needs of women and girls are still deprioritized as they are not considered lifesaving. Despite the fact that gender-based violence (GBV) affects 20-30% of women in conflict settings and up to 70% of women in some conflicts, GBV programming is the least-funded sector in coordinated humanitarian plans. Only 13% of GBV programming requirements are funded, while other sectors are 27% funded on average. The pervasiveness of gender inequality means that any humanitarian or development intervention will fail unless it incorporates feminist approaches that will course-correct the gendered impact of the crisis.
To see these myths at a glance, along with more facts and priorities for action, download the 2024 Emergency Watchlist.
