Conflict and Humanitarian Crises Initiative
Displaced in Damascus wait in line to receive food aid
The Conflict and Humanitarian Crises Initiative will focus on the challenges facing the international humanitarian system in dealing with the dramatic increase in conflict related humanitarian crises.
Context
There are now five Level 3 emergencies - Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Yemen and the Central African Republic. This is the UN’s classification for determining a system wide emergency activation based on based on scale, complexity, urgency, capacity and reputational risk.
And there are numerous smaller but still sizeable conflict related humanitarian crises - Somalia, Afghanistan, DRC, Myanmar and more.
Never have there been so many simultaneous large-scale humanitarian emergencies.
The main drivers of today’s conflicts are weak state governance that fails to address internal political and economic problems; violent militancy by non-state actors who exploit sectarian, religious, ethnic or tribal sentiments; population growth that strains resources while fueling youth radicalism, and climate change, which is propelling competition for resources and involuntary migrations.
These forces are not easily vanquished and are generating protracted displacement emergencies for which old models of humanitarian assistance are inadequate.
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