GHO 2025: OCHA spotlights critical role of local organizations to deliver aid effectively

Remarks delivered by Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, on behalf of Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 in Nairobi: “Investing in localization for the transformation of humanitarian responses” 

Nairobi, 4 December 2024 

As delivered

Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome. It is a pleasure to be here in Nairobi for the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview for 2025. 

I want to start by thanking the African Union for hosting this event with us today – this is the third consecutive year that we have joined forces on this launch. 

This underlines our shared commitment to addressing humanitarian needs across the globe, and in Africa.

And I would like to acknowledge the African Union and its efforts to strengthen its humanitarian capacity. 

These ongoing efforts include operationalising the Africa Humanitarian Agency; reviewing its civil-military coordination processes with OCHA and the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross]; as well as working with OCHA on the African Union’s Humanitarian Diplomacy Framework. 

On the latter, I want to commend the African Union for its humanitarian diplomacy on the deeply troubling situations in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   

We very much look forward to continuing this collaboration, which serves as a model for a regional approach to humanitarian assistance. 

Partnerships of this strength and depth are crucial to tackling the immensity of the humanitarian challenges we face.

In 2025, 305 million people will require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection. 305 million people, this includes 85 million people in Southern and Eastern Africa; 59 million people in the Middle East and North Africa; and 57 million people in West and Central Africa. 

What makes these staggeringly high numbers so unconscionable, is that the two main drivers are unfortunately both man-made.

The first is conflict. 

In 2024, we have seen the continuation of devastating wars in Gaza and Sudan – both marked by a callous and blatant disregard for human life, a lack of respect for international law, and the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid. 

Violence and unresolved conflicts have also continued to rupture people’s lives in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, the DRC, the Sahel, Myanmar, Haiti and many other places.

I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of visiting all these countries in the last year. Unfortunate because of the wars, the conflict and the pain and pleasure because these are beautiful countries with beautiful people. 

The link between this conflict and humanitarian needs is unequivocal: four out of every five civilian fatalities worldwide this year have occurred in countries with a humanitarian appeal or plan.

By mid-2024, 123 million people had been forcibly displaced by conflict and violence, making it the twelfth consecutive year in which this number has increased.

And the youngest in our societies – the people we are meant to be protecting and nurturing – are among the worst hit. You look around you and its children everywhere suffering through this devastation. 

Grave violations against children in conflict have reached unprecedented levels, with Sudan alone witnessing a 480 per cent increase between 2022 and 2023. One in every five children is now living in, or fleeing, a conflict zone.

The second driver is the global climate emergency.

The world is perilously close to reaching 1.5°C in warming. 

But the devastating humanitarian effects of climate change are already here. Everyone is affected, but the least responsible are shouldering the heaviest burden.

2024 is expected to be the hottest year on record. It has been marked by yet more extreme weather-related disasters.

We have seen devastating floods in the Sahel, East Africa and Europe; drought in Southern Africa and the Americas; and heatwaves and wildfires across the globe. 

But the damage goes far beyond the destruction of extreme weather events. 

The climate crisis is also wreaking havoc on agriculture and food systems, undermining livelihoods and deepening food insecurity – droughts, for instance, have caused 65 per cent of agricultural economic damages in the past 15 years.

And in the absence of meaningful action to end and prevent these conflicts and slow or halt global warming, people are facing increasingly prolonged crises.

The average duration of a humanitarian appeal is now 10 years. Few years ago was seven years, a few years ago before that was five years today, 10 years. Many of the longest appeals are here in Africa – in Central African Republic, Chad, the DRC, Somalia and Sudan.

You know as well as I do that the longer humanitarian crises last, the worse the prospects for affected people. 

Data we have been tracking since 2011 reveal that in crisis affected countries, life expectancies are six years below the global average; vaccination rates are 20 per cent below the global average; maternal mortality rates are double the global average; and primary school completion rates that are just 10 per cent compared to 90 per cent globally.

The result of all these factors means that in 2025, the UN and its partner organizations are appealing for $47 billion to assist nearly 190 million people across some 73 countries worldwide and we are working with 1,500 partners globally to advance this effort

For the second consecutive year, this appeal reflects work by the UN and its humanitarian partners to prioritize assistance and protection for the people and places who need it the most. 

Nevertheless, we will have no chance of meeting the aims of these prioritized plans unless we receive the funding that we need. 

Despite similar efforts in 2024, humanitarians were given the impossible job of meeting the needs of nearly 198 million people with less than 45 per cent of required funding. 

People paid for this shortfall in funds with their lives, their safety their health. 

Cuts to food and nutrition assistance pushed millions towards starvation and famine. Gaps in water, sanitation and health care increased the risk of disease. And women and girls bore the brunt of cuts to midwifery, obstetric and newborn care, and essential support to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

I was in Lebanon last week and I met young adolescent girls from Syria, one a 22-year-old, looking excited about life. She had just given birth two months ago, we asked her if her child has been vaccinated and she said no. 

We are grateful for all the generous support from our donors.

However, in 2025, we are also calling on donors to dig deeper, and provide full and flexible funding for the humanitarian appeals in this Global Humanitarian Overview.

We are also calling for more support from the international community on access, and on the protection of civilians and the aid workers who serve them.

We have heard this all too many times – civilians are bearing the brunt of a record number of armed conflicts, marked by blatant disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Civilians have been killed and injured in intolerable numbers; homes, hospitals and essential services have been razed to the ground; and millions have been displaced.

Meanwhile, severe humanitarian access impediments have subjected millions to crisis levels of food insecurity. Famine conditions have been confirmed in displacement sites in North Darfur in Sudan, and are imminent in North Gaza – country which boasts fertile land. 

Sudan is one of those places where you eat a grapefruit and you are wondering is this a sweet or a grape fruit. Sudan had the best of the best and today Sudan has food growing in certain parts of it the issue is access to get people food assistance.

It has also now been the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers. Our colleagues – most of them local staff – have been attacked, killed, injured and kidnapped with almost total impunity. This is unacceptable – thismust stop. 

We once again demand compliance with international humanitarian law, and call on States to hold parties to their obligations, including accountability. 

We are also calling for greater international action to end wars, to help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, and development action to help lift them out of crisis. 

Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

For our part, we will continue to serve people around the world with the courage and determination shown in 2024 - despite the many challenges we provided life-sustaining and life-saving assistance to nearly 116 million people around the world this year – an incredible achievement.

And we will continue with efforts to improve the way we deliver for people in crises, including through increased investment in localization, the theme of today’s event here in Nairobi, and the topic of our upcoming panel discussion.

At the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, we recognize the vital role of local and national organizations and actors in delivering effective humanitarian responses.

Our colleagues in the international humanitarian world also believe in this. 

They are always at the heart of the response.

They are the first responders. They can leverage community networks that help to access affected people. They ensure more effective, efficient and sustainable action. 

This year, we continued to increase our support to these organizations.

Humanitarian emergency rooms in Sudan are a lifeline. The temples in Myanmar are a lifeline, first responders are nationals of their countries thus localization is essential.

In 2024, 45 per cent of funding from the OCHA-managed Country-Based Pooled Funds was channeled to local and national partners – the highest proportion ever done. And we dramatically increased the representation of local and national organizations in Humanitarian Country Teams around the world.

Much more needs to be done to earn local and national actors’ trust and ensure their voices shape the future of humanitarian action. 

In 2025, we sure will continue to promote their vital role, including through the Flagship Initiative that has been piloting more tailored national and local approaches, including in Niger, South Sudan and Columbia. 

Your generous support for humanitarian appeals and the UN-managed pooled funds is a contribution to this important transformation and the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance. 

I look forward to the upcoming discussion.

Thank you.