OCHA's 2024 in Review

2024 was also the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers – 300 were killed. During OCHA’s annual World Humanitarian Day campaign in August, humanitarian organizations called for an end to attacks on humanitarians and civilians, highlighting the urgent need for greater protection and accountability.

Despite the mounting challenges, aid workers reached nearly 116 million people with assistance this year. 

Here are 12 ways we made a difference:

Amid the dramatic events of the past few weeks in Syria, OCHA engaged with the new caretaker authorities on scaling up humanitarian assistance across the country. OCHA supported the region’s humanitarian leadership to ensure aid workers could stay and deliver critical aid. 

Earlier in the year, OCHA led the engagement with the former Government of Syria, the Government of Türkiye and the de facto authorities in north-west Syria to maintain cross-border operations from Türkiye into north-west Syria. This followed the lapse of Security Council authorization for cross-border assistance in July 2023. 
 

In an increasingly difficult and dangerous environment, OCHA was pivotal in negotiating access and ensuring delivery of humanitarian assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, whenever possible. Despite numerous constraints and impediments, OCHA worked with partners to facilitate a system that allowed the delivery of available supplies where and when feasible.

To better support affected communities, OCHA launched a Humanitarian Service Directory, through which helpline operators provide essential information to people in need. The OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) funds this service.

Throughout the year, OCHA’s leadership strongly advocated – including in the Security Council – for the protection of civilians and emphasized the need to uphold international humanitarian law and end impunity.

As access to people in need in Sudan was constrained, OCHA helped set up humanitarian hubs to bring aid closer to affected communities. The OCHA-managed Sudan Humanitarian Fund disbursed US$175 million to help local responders deliver assistance in hard-to-access areas.

When the Adre border crossing between Chad and Sudan reopened in August, OCHA’s facilitated the entry of 14,000 metric tons of vital aid, enough to help 1.6 million people across the Darfur region.

CERF allocated $66 million, which also boosted aid flows. 

By the end of October, humanitarian aid had reached about 12 million of the 14.7 million people identified for assistance in Sudan.

As the Russian Federation’s war in Ukraine escalated, OCHA coordinated and led at least 45 inter-agency relief convoys, delivering assistance to more than 80,000 people in front-line communities.

Working with more than 630 humanitarian organizations, including 460 national partners and local authorities, OCHA facilitated life-saving support to 8.5 million people across Ukraine this year. 

The OCHA-managed Ukraine Humanitarian Fund allocated $162 million in 2024 – the highest amount among all Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs) this year. Notably, 58 per cent of the funding was directed to local and national partners.

As Israeli hostilities expanded across Lebanon, severely restricting humanitarian access, OCHA supported the movement of convoys to hard-to-reach areas.

CERF allocated $10 million to provide urgent relief to affected people.

In response to the rapidly growing needs, OCHA launched a three-month $426 million Flash Appeal to assist 1 million people. CERF and the OCHA-managed Lebanon Humanitarian Fund were among the first contributors to the appeal, collectively providing $22 million.

Through access negotiations, enhanced coordination and strong advocacy, OCHA and our partners delivered critical aid to 2.3 million people in Haiti this year.

OCHA brought together more than 160 humanitarian organizations to deliver life-saving aid. These efforts facilitated humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas, including the Port-au-Prince metropolitan region and Artibonite and Grand Sud Departments.

With CERF support, OCHA prioritized projects that focus on conflict survivors, such as safe shelters. A system to ensure more accountability to affected people was also established with 15 agencies. This has improved engagement with communities to better address their needs.

Cash and voucher assistance became a lifeline for people trapped in complex and volatile emergencies in 2024.

In Ukraine, nearly $224 million in multipurpose cash assistance reached more than 805,000 people, giving them flexible support to meet their immediate needs while stimulating local economies.

When conflict escalated in Haiti in March, 20 organizations collaborated to provide cash assistance to people in need. 

In Yemen, donors significantly increased their support for cash assistance; by October they had already covered 95 per cent of the funding requested for 2024. Humanitarians reached almost 2 million people in Yemen as a result.

The OCHA-managed humanitarian funds continued to support and prioritize our local partners. By November, more than 45 per cent of all funding was allocated to local and national partners, surpassing the 25 per cent global benchmark set at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit.

The Somalia Humanitarian Fund allocated 78 per cent of its funding to national NGOs in 2024, one of the highest proportions among the CBPFs.

The Yemen Humanitarian Fund channelled more than 60 per cent of its funding through local organizations, many of which are led by women.

Similarly, the Democratic Republic of the Congo Humanitarian Fund directed 62 per cent of its funding to national NGOs this year, including $2.7 million to five women-led organizations. 

In Ethiopia, 61 per cent of partners delivering emergency shelter and non-food items are national NGOs

Millions of people across Southern and Eastern Africa faced El Niño-related droughts and floods this year. The OCHA-managed humanitarian funds allocated $72 million, which helped humanitarian organizations deliver vital aid to people across Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Somalia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The global climate emergency – and our response to it – reached new milestones in 2024. 

In September, CERF released $3.4 million just six minutes after receiving flood warnings in Nepal, saving countless lives. This broke the previous record set earlier that month, when CERF released funds within 16 minutes ahead of peak floods in Bangladesh. 

By the year’s end, OCHA’s allocations for pre-arranged anticipatory aid exceeded $120 million, enabling a rapid response.

To strengthen its climate response, OCHA launched a Climate Action Account at COP28. The account enabled CERF to commit $10 million to boost climate resilience in communities in nine countries in 2024. 

Hurricane Beryl – the earliest and strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic Ocean – devasted Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In response, OCHA coordinated urgent efforts to help people in need.

Anticipating record flooding in South Sudan, OCHA coordinated with authorities and partners to strengthen timely response. 

And in the Philippines, OCHA developed a dashboard with local information to help people better prepare for disasters. 

Building on the success of the fund for West and Central Africa, OCHA launched three new Regional Pooled Funds in 2024 in Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Latin America and the Caribbean Fund, launched in September, allocated $2.5 million to support people affected by conflict in Colombia, including rebuilding their livelihoods.

OCHA significantly informed the Security Council’s decision to make permanent the humanitarian exemption to its sanctions against Al-Qaida, ISIL and related actors. This decision, which affects 10 countries with humanitarian appeals in 2024, allows aid to reach affected people.