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With staff shortages, underfunding and trying to meet the needs of increasing numbers of people affected by conflict and climate disasters, the humanitarian aid sector faces a new reality. Operating in the field has never been more difficult. The effects of war and flooding in Sudan and South Sudan, for example, are severely restricting access, while fuel shortages and rising prices are affecting transport costs. Coordinating safe passage with state actors and non-state armed groups is particularly difficult in Sudan, where militia groups control different territories. “In emergencies, time has a different value. People are dying of hunger,” says Sami Guessabi, national director of Action Against Hunger in Sudan.
In Gaza, the obstacles begin at the border. “The crossings are not always open,” says Natalia Anguera, Action against hungerHead of operations for the Middle East. Tons of food remain in idle trucks. Before October 2023, at least 500 trucks a day crossed into Gaza to meet basic needs. This October, only a daily average of 37 trucks were allowed through. According to the World Food ProgramMore than 90 percent of the population faces acute levels of food insecurity.
Safety is another major concern. In April, three cars belonging to the food aid organization World Central Kitchen were hit by Israeli drones in a high-profile attack that resulted in the deaths of seven aid workers. This occurred even though two of the three vehicles were clearly marked with the WCK logo and the convoy route was coordinated with Israeli forces. WCK suspended its operations in Gaza. When he resumed work in Gaza later that month, its founding chef, José Andrés, wrote that he did so with “at best a limited understanding of how aid workers will be protected in the coming weeks and months”.
Richard Blewitt, international executive director of the British Red Crossspeaks to the need to divert greater resources towards security measures and risk management. The #NotATarget social media campaign and World Humanitarian Day commemorations are part of broader efforts to combat the normalization of violence against aid workers. Organizations such as the Red Cross – which have traditionally prioritized behind-the-scenes dialogue with parties to the conflict – are openly calling for greater respect for international humanitarian law.
More generally, a shift towards the use of preventive measures can minimize the risks, obstacles and costs involved in international emergency responses. These may include strengthening early warning systems, stockpiling food aid, and distributing drought-resistant seeds.
how to give it
Action against hunger runs programs fighting hunger and malnutrition in 56 countries around the world, including its Gaza and Lebanon crisis appeal and its Sudan crisis appeal. actionagainsthunger.org.uk
British Red Cross It currently has crisis appeals for Gaza, Somalia, Afghanistan, Africa, Ukraine, Yemen, Syria and Turkey-Syria. donate.redcross.org.uk
Oxfam is responding to 28 emergency situations in more than 30 countries around the world, including Gaza and Lebanon, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Yemen, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. oxfam.org.uk/emergencyresponse
World Central Kitchen has projects underway in Spain for flood victims; in North Carolina for families affected by Hurricane Helene; in Gaza, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt; and Ukraine and neighboring countries. wck.org/donate
World Food Program operates in more than 120 countries and territories and is seeking $179 million to continue its work in Gaza and the West Bank until April 2025. donate.wfp.org
When funds go toward food and aid cannot arrive, cash donations or coupons can be an effective alternative, as long as products are available and financial systems continue to function. “More than 20 percent of humanitarian aid is currently delivered in cash,” says Blewitt. “It can be delivered without having to transport it by truck. [supplies] and it is a way to promote local markets. He Ukrainian Red Cross runs a major cash program for veterans, complements the government in delivering cash to displaced people, and has been able to bring cash directly to the front lines.” After October 2023, cash assistance was a vital part of the humanitarian response in Gaza, where 865,000 people have since received cash assistance to spend primarily on food and drinking water. Collapsing infrastructure and rising prices have made that a less feasible option now.
During the summer, the World Food Program reached more than a million people a month in Gaza with food parcels, wheat flour, bread and hot meals, and several WFP-supported bakeries and community kitchens remained operational, although Often open on holidays. ad hoc, and some were forced to close completely. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society was able to distribute 11,000 food packages in northern Gaza in September; he Lebanese Red Cross has distributed 115,000 food packages in Lebanon since September; and, in Sudan, around 10,000 recently displaced people in the famine-stricken Zamzam camp in northern Darfur have begun receiving two hot meals a day thanks to community kitchens supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Sudanese Red Crescent Society. Among operations elsewhere, Action Against Hunger has launched major aid programs in countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Ethiopia, despite armed conflict, climate crises and economic collapse.
Whatever the obstacles and threats, the determination to help remains. “Some of my local colleagues in Gaza have been displaced two or three times,” says Anguera. “The same in Lebanon before the ceasefire. The easiest thing would be to leave. But they continue to support their communities. Being humanitarian is a state of mind. When there is a need, we run to it.”