11/12 • GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN OVERVIEW

Global needs have soared while political will has withered. The gap between what communities endure and what the world chooses to fund has never been wider. 

You can read the full report here.

The GHO confirmed what many local responders have been warning for months. Hard choices were made not because needs reduced, but because resources have dried up. Entire sectors have been hollowed out. Local and national organisations, including many faith-based groups, have lost staff, funding, and the capacity to protect their own communities. Cuts have pushed people already living on the edge into deeper hunger and insecurity.

For example, UN Women has already warned that nearly all women’s organisations in crisis settings have been hit by cuts, with many at risk of closure. Child protection services have also contracted significantly. Refugee led organisations, even before the latest cuts, received only a tiny share of funding.

At the same time, political decisions have intensified the danger. Conflicts have multiplied and become more lethal, with the Uppsala data showing the highest number of conflicts since records began. Global weapons spending has surged far beyond humanitarian budgets. Violence against civilians, including women and children, has risen sharply, as documented in the UN Secretary General’s reports. Multiple hunger hotspots and famine level conditions were confirmed across several regions. Forced displacement continued to climb.

Anglican Missions has joined a collective NGO statement because this moment is not business as usual. It is a wakeup call.

The rapid scaling back of the international system risks leaving huge gaps in assistance unless local leadership is properly supported. The statement is blunt. The humanitarian sector is being asked to do less with less while needs reach historic levels. The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report highlights the scale of the financial decline now underway.

Even so, local organisations and churches are still working in their communities despite fewer resources and rising need, supported by those who remain committed to standing with them. The GHO is clear that the world has enough capacity to address much of this suffering. What remains uncertain is whether governments and donors will choose to act on that reality.