Whether triggered by humans or the result of natural events, there are crises that immediately attract significant international attention, mobilising resources and even changing existing political frameworks. Other crises, despite affecting millions of people, seem to be forgotten by both the press and the international community, and become chronic to the point that they are seen as unsolvable problems, unworthy of attention.
In 2005, under the framework of the United Nations Reform Act, specifically the reform of humanitarian coordination, the Secretary-General warned about the increasing global inequality (UN, 2005) and the inequitable donor attention to humanitarian crises (UN, 2005). Specific mention was made of the crises in Africa, the most neglected ones at the time, and that there were essential sectors for sustaining life that were lacking a minimum level of resources.
In an effort to prioritise responses to these crises and narrow the gaps, the United Nations focuses on a needs-based humanitarian response that involves using a combination of indicators that assess the level of risk in each potential situation, along with the vulnerability and resilience levels of countries or sectors that may be affected. It then identifies a set of “underfunded crises” based on this assessment, to which it pre-allocates a portion of emergency funds, prioritizing 10 sectors including health, nutrition, and protection.
To that end, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) annually allocates at least 30% of its funding to address humanitarian needs in crises categorised as underfunded. For example, the most recent CERF funding round in 2023 prioritised countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mali, Myanmar, Uganda, Central African Republic, Malawi, Mozambique, Venezuela, and Yemen. Additionally, it identified two other groups for a total of 22 countries that could potentially be prioritised. However, only half of the prioritised areas have Humanitarian Response Plans (CERF, 2023).
The European Union (EU) also employs the concept of “forgotten crises”, reaffirming its commitment to giving these crises priority attention through the joint statement known as the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid (EU, 2008). The EU defines forgotten crises as those where risk and vulnerability factors converge with a significant lack of funding from donors and limited relevant international media attention. In response, it has established a policy to allocate 15% of its initial humanitarian budget to forgotten crises (ECHO, 2021).
The assessment that produces ECHO’s list of forgotten crises takes into consideration that these crises can affect minorities within countries and may represent a combination of more than one type of crisis at the same time, which are called complex crises. ECHO named 15 forgotten crises in 2022-2023, including complex crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Burundi, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Colombia. It also included refugee crises in several different countries like Sudan, Central African Republic refugees in Chad, Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and Venezuelan refugees in Ecuador and Peru. Other priority forgotten crises are related to violence in north-western Nigeria in West Darfur and the socio-economic crisis in Lebanon.
Given the overall shortfall in international aid funding, there is a dire need to draw attention to this situation. According to OCHA (2023) the average funding for Humanitarian Response Plans at the end of the third quarter of 2023 stood at just 32.1% of the total resources required. The response to a few specific situations such as the Syria earthquake is remarkable: 100% of the requested resources were available. Paradoxically, however, the Humanitarian Response Plan for the country as a whole, which is mired in a 12-year war, received only 29.3% of the required funding by the end of the third quarter of 2023. Besides the Syria Humanitarian Response Plan, others failed to reach even a third of the funding required to respond to humanitarian needs, including those for Burundi, Chad, Cameroon, Mali, Lebanon, Myanmar, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
This alarming gap impacts the availability of resources earmarked for response in essential sectors such as basic health, nutrition and protection, including response to gender-based violence, to the point of producing situations like the humanitarian emergencies in El Salvador and Guatemala, where the resources required to meet health and nutrition needs are practically non-existent (OCHA, 2023).
Consequently, beyond ensuring that countries meet their international ODA obligations and commitments, minimal budgetary allocations must be established to guarantee a response to vital needs at the very least. These should be coupled with improvements in aid predictability and flexibility that allow resources to be quickly channelled to the most pressing needs. At a more macro level, the international community as a whole needs to push for more coherent policies, responsibly targeting the factors at the root of forgotten crises so that sustainable, equitable solutions can be found. To this end, civil society organisations working to create alternatives to the crises in each territory play a crucial role and should be listened to and supported to the extent possible, not only at an operational level, but at a political one as well.
Members of the international community have the duty to contribute, based on their resources, not only financially in terms of aid, but also by primarily respecting and demanding respect for human rights, environmental rights and International Humanitarian Law, and also to responsibly participate in the international community’s various forums to help prevent, respond to and overcome crises. There is a need to promote healthy political frameworks, ensuring dialogue and the participation of local civil society.
On the other hand, there is also a need to reflect on the role the press has to play. It is essential to promote the visibility of forgotten crises, respecting the humanity, dignity, voice and political agenda of the people who are experiencing these crises first-hand, and questioning the narratives that normalise suffering, which are often systematically repeated when it comes to communities in the Global South. The narrative needs to delve deeper into the complexity of these crises, drawing attention to their structural causes and incorporating the political and economic elements that favour or benefit from them.