Unprecedented Humanitarian Needs must shock Grand Bargain Signatories into Action

As we launch the 2023 Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) with historically high levels of need1, the recommendations of the High-Level Panel (HLP) on Humanitarian Financing’s Too Important to Fail report2, on which the Grand Bargain was built, resonate more than ever. Sixty-four NGOs and NGO networks see the continuation and strengthening of the Grand Bargain – the process to make the humanitarian system more efficient – as crucial and call for renewed commitment to shrink needs, deepen the resource base and invest in gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.

This record appeal must be a wake-up call to Grand Bargain signatories and other relevant stakeholders to reform the system and engage actors far beyond the humanitarian sector alone. At the beginning of 2022, 274 million people needed humanitarian assistance. In 2023, it is 339 million people. This is an increase of nearly 24 per cent, or 65 million people. It means that today, one in every 23 people on the planet needs humanitarian assistance. The 2023 GHO size is just a taste of what is to come as the effects of conflict, COVID-19 and climate change continue to magnify other drivers of humanitarian needs in years to come, amplifying existing and intersecting forms of inequalities and injustices, including gender inequality, experienced by marginalized groups.