Omfanget af humanitære kriser og antallet af mennesker, der har brug for hjælp, er rekordhøjt. Det får FN’s børnefond til at se på, hvordan man bedst sikrer midler til den akutte katastrofehjælp.
NEW YORK, 4 February 2015: The number and scale of humanitarian emergencies in 2014 made it an unprecedented year in UNICEF’s work to meet the needs of children and families affected by crisis.
As UNICEF’s Executive Board gathered yesterday at the start of the first regular session of 2015, Member States considered the growing number and complexity of emergencies, the lessons UNICEF has learned from the preceding year and how those insights may be applied to provide even more timely and effective humanitarian aid.
In a top-agenda item, the Board considered how UNICEF can continue to have sufficient funds available when a situation quickly deteriorates, facilitating stronger operational capacity to respond to crises.
An unprecedented humanitarian caseload
By the end of October 2014, UNICEF and partners were engaged in humanitarian response in about 40 countries, including 11 emergencies classified as Level 3 – the highest designation, requiring mobilization of the entire humanitarian system.
These included the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in late 2013; violence in the Central African Republic; conflict and food insecurity in South Sudan; the upsurge of fighting in Iraq; the continued conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic and the resulting refugee crisis in several neighbouring countries; and the worst Ebola virus outbreak in history, which has ravaged communities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Brutal attacks against children
“Children around the world are under greater threat than ever before from humanitarian emergencies, sectarian strife and crises such as the outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has cost so many lives and devastated families and communities in West Africa,” said Executive Board President, H.E. Mr. Masood Khan, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations.
“And in the last few months, we have been devastated by increasingly brutal attacks against children and seen previously unimaginable horrors as children have been used as weapons by extremist groups.”
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