UN launches record $51.5 billion humanitarian appeal for 2023

Geneva, 1 December 2022: Next year will set another record for humanitarian relief requirements,
with 339 million people in need of assistance in 69 countries, an increase of 65 million people
compared to the same time last year, the United Nations and partner organizations said today.
The estimated cost of the humanitarian response going into 2023 is US$51.5 billion, a 25 per cent
increase compared to the beginning of 2022.
“Humanitarian needs are shockingly high, as this year’s extreme events are spilling into 2023,” said
the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths.
“Lethal droughts and floods are wreaking havoc in communities from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa.
The war in Ukraine has turned a part of Europe into a battlefield. More than 100 million people are
now displaced worldwide. And all of this on top of the devastation left by the pandemic among the
world’s poorest.
“For people on the brink, this appeal is a lifeline. For the international community, it is a strategy to
make good on the pledge to leave no one behind.”
The 2023 Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO), launched today by the UN in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations and other humanitarian partners, paints a stark picture of what lies
ahead:
• At least 222 million people in 53 countries will face acute food insecurity by the end of 2022.
Forty-five million people in 37 countries risk starvation. 
• Public health is under pressure due to COVID-19, monkeypox, vectorborne diseases, and
outbreaks of Ebola and cholera.
• Climate change is driving up risks and vulnerability. By the end of the century, extreme heat
could claim as many lives as cancer.
• It will take four generations – 132 years – to achieve global gender parity. Globally, 388
million women and girls live in extreme poverty.
The response plans in the GHO detail how aid agencies working together around specific types of aid
– including shelter, food, maternal health, child nutrition and protection – can save and support the
lives of a combined 230 million people worldwide.
This year, humanitarian organizations have delivered assistance to stave off the most urgent needs of
157 million people. This includes food assistance for 127 million people; sufficient safe water for
nearly 26 million people; livelihood assistance for 24 million people; mental health and psychosocial
support for 13 million children and caregivers; maternal health consultations for 5.2 million mothers;
and health-care services for 5.8 million refugees and asylum-seekers.
Humanitarians have painstakingly negotiated access to communities in need, most recently in the
Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, to deliver water and food rations. And the Black Sea Grain Initiative
has been renewed, ensuring a continuous flow of food commodities from Ukraine to global markets.
National and local organizations are members of 80 per cent of all Humanitarian Country Teams,
providing essential guidance and leadership. And from Afghanistan to the Central African Republic,
local organizations led by women are engaged in humanitarian planning and programming.
Donors have provided a generous $24 billion in funding as of mid-November 2022, but needs are
rising faster than the financial support. The funding gap has never been greater, currently at 53 per
cent. Humanitarian organizations are therefore forced to decide who to target with the funds available.

The GHO is a comprehensive and evidence-based assessment of global humanitarian needs. It
provides a snapshot of current and future trends in humanitarian action for large-scale resource
mobilization efforts.
The GHO 2023 includes country-specific Humanitarian Response Plans for Afghanistan, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger,
Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic,
Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen.
The GHO includes Flash Appeals and other plans for Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar and Pakistan.
Regional inter-agency plans for neighboring countries are also included for the crises in Afghanistan,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Horn of Africa and Yemen, Rohingya, South Sudan, Syria,
Ukraine and Venezuela.
Media resources
• Global Humanitarian Overview 2023 (available 0600 CET 1 December)
• Photos for download
• B-roll for broadcasters
• Video edit of press briefing by Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths (available 0600
CET 1 December)