Each 19 August is celebrated as United Nations (UN) World Humanitarian Day.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes many books about different aspects of humanitarian work that may be useful for students interested in economics, sociology, allied health sciences, anthropology, political science, development studies, and related subjects.

As the UN website explains,

The 2023 Mid-Year Update of the Global Humanitarian Needs Overview estimated that 362 million people in the world need humanitarian assistance.

The Global Humanitarian Needs Overview reports:

At-a-glance

In the first six months of 2024, humanitarian needs in multiple countries intensified, while new crises hit others, causing global humanitarian requirements to grow from US$46.4 billion in January 2024 to the current $48.7 billion.

Conflict and violence drove rising displacement and deepened suffering in contexts such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Myanmar and Sudan, while climate shocks—including floods, cyclones and drought—caused loss of lives and livelihoods in multiple countries. New appeals and plans were launched in Bangladesh, Burundi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) now targeting 188 million people across 72 countries through 41 coordinated plans.

Yet, despite rising needs and harrowing decisions made by humanitarians about who, and what, to include in 2024 appeals, funding is dire. Some $7.9 billion had been received against the GHO requirements by the end of May 2024, which is 18 per cent lower than the amount received at the same time in 2023 ($9.8 billion), and just 16 per cent of the requirements for this year.

This is particularly concerning given that humanitarians worked intensively at the end of 2023 to more tightly define the 2024 appeals, meaning that funding shortfalls have directly cut into the ability of partners to meet the most acute needs of people in crisis worldwide. Cuts in food assistance due to underfunding are leaving people at risk of starvation in places such as Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen. Women and girls’ ability to access sexual and reproductive health care and services for gender-based violence have been compromised in multiple crises. Children in Mali, OPT, Syria, and other countries are being deprived of their future due to education funding shortfalls, whilst people are left facing heighted risk of disease due to under-resourcing of water, sanitation and hygiene services in countries such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The consequences have been particularly hard- felt in the nine most underfunded crises: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, DRC, Haiti, Honduras, Mali, Myanmar and Sudan.

Between 2019 and 2023, funding coverage for these crises was, on average, 15 percent lower than for the rest of the Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs). And there are direct repercussions: the percentage of people reached with assistance and protection under these countries’ plans and appeals has been an average of 16 per cent lower than others.

But it was not only under-funding that impeded humanitarian operations in the first half of 2024— ferocious conflicts, attacks against aid workers and essential services and access impediments took a devastating toll on humanitarians’ ability to reach people in desperate need. From OPT to Sudan to Myanmar and beyond, the first half of 2024 was characterized by extreme challenges, from attacks against health, education and water and sanitation facilities that left millions of people without access to the services they need to survive and thrive, to the killing, injury and detention of aid workers.

And yet—even faced with enormous obstacles—the humanitarian community has rallied to bring relief to people who need it most, building around the incredible solidarity and support provided by communities and community-based organizations. In the first five months of the year, humanitarians were able to reach at least 39.7 million people with some form of humanitarian assistance, with much of this delivered by national and local partners. In Ukraine, for example, some 500 organizations were part of the humanitarian response in the first quarter of 2024; 80 per cent of them local and national actors.

However, as the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, famously said: “there are no humanitarian solutions to humanitarian problems.” Political action is imperative to address the conflicts that are unfolding with horrifying consequences for civilians, and there must be a global recommitment to upholding the laws of war. Political commitment is also required to tackle the ever-deepening global climate crisis, which is already having profound humanitarian consequences, as was further evidenced during the first half of 2024. And there is a need for Governments and development actors to redouble their efforts to reach people who are left the furthest behind.

Whilst these solutions are sought, there must be renewed global solidarity—building on the funding already committed this year—to fully fund humanitarian appeals worldwide and to protect the aid workers who are delivering to people in need every day. As this mid-year update of the GHO 2024 highlights, the cost of inaction could literally be deadly.

Among humanitarian concerns expressed by the Karen Human Rights Group is a briefing paper, Schools Under Attack: Challenges to the right to education in Southeast Burma.

From the Introduction:

Villagers in Southeast Burma (Myanmar) have been fighting for the right to teach and learn in accordance with their own culture for many decades, as Karen culture has been subjected to control and suppression by the Burma Army and government. Since the 2021 coup, this situation has escalated, and Southeast Burma is facing a dire education crisis, where the rights of children are violated, schools are unsafe, and gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law are impacting every aspect of villagers’ lives. Children in locally-defined Karen State need safe spaces to learn and access to quality education, parents and villagers need support to be able to sustain their children’s schooling, and communities and local leaders need help in their efforts to set up safe study centres.

This briefing paper presents evidence documented from June 2023 to February 2024, the most recent academic year in Burma, outlining the different challenges faced by villagers during the ongoing conflict, and the effects on education in Southeast Burma. The first section provides a brief overview of the situation of the right to education in the region before the 2021 coup, and the violations that have increased since then. The second section presents testimonies regarding the lack of access to education, as well as the challenges and risks that villagers face by attempting to address educational needs in their communities. The third section provides a security and legal analysis of the situation, as well as a set of policy recommendations for local and international stakeholders.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)