Colleagues in the humanitarian community, contributors to our collective efforts, ladies and gentlemen,
This year, WHO has responded to protracted emergencies and humanitarian crises in more than 30 countries, including Iraq, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen.
The number of people in need of essential health services, at around 82 million, is unprecedented.
Protracted emergencies displace populations, within countries and beyond their borders, on a massive scale. They shift populations, either gradually or abruptly, from being self-reliant to largely or entirely dependent on aid organizations. The funding needed to care for basic human needs is record-breaking, as is the funding gap.
The new Humanitarian Response Plans show that access to basic health care is a dominant need in protracted emergencies. Armed conflict kills, but deaths also arise from diseases and injuries that cannot be managed when the health system has collapsed or been destroyed.
In areas affected by armed conflict, beds in the hospitals that still function are often fully occupied by the injured requiring urgent priority care. In some conflicts, fuel shortages and security threats have left ambulance services non-functional.
The impact of insufficient resources for health care is staggering. More children die before their first birthday. More children suffer stunting because they can’t get enough to eat.
More women die in childbirth. More women and girls are left vulnerable to sexual abuse, violence, and exploitation.
More children, with little or no education, are robbed of the opportunity to develop their full human capacity. More farmers are forced to use their seeds as food instead of planting, beginning another cycle of poverty and deprivation.
This is the exact opposite of sustainable development. Look at the figures from a global perspective.
Worldwide, 60% of deaths during pregnancy and childbirth occur in areas experiencing conflict, population displacement, or natural disasters. More than half of the world’s children who die before their fifth birthday live in crisis areas.
International humanitarian law that protects the safety of health workers and the sanctity of hospitals and other health facilities is being blatantly violated. Last year, more than 600 health care staff were killed and nearly 1 000 were injured in areas of armed conflict. Many thousands more fled for their lives.
In several countries, humanitarian agencies have replaced governments as the principal provider of health services. This is an extremely heavy burden, given the dual burden of infectious and noncommunicable diseases on top of thousands and thousands of conflict-related injuries.
Descriptions of the horrors of trying to stay healthy and alive amidst the devastation of prolonged conflict leave many stunned, then numbed. With conflicts lasting for years on end, the horrifically unacceptable begins to pass for the normal.
Please, do not close your eyes to misery on such a massive scale. We have a profound moral obligation to take care of these people. Their health expectations are not high. They just want to survive.
Thank you.