Introduction

The year 2023 saw not only a con­tin­u­a­tion of hos­til­i­ties in Ukraine, or even a strength­en­ing of Russia’s mil­i­tary cam­paign against Ukrain­ian civil­ian infra­struc­ture toward the end of the year, but also new con­flicts such as those in the Occu­pied Pales­tin­ian Ter­ri­to­ries and Sudan. The war between Israel and Hamas has set a trag­ic record, with the largest ever num­ber of aid work­ers killed in just a few months. Sudan, for its part, has faced the largest ever wave of inter­nal­ly dis­placed per­sons in the world.

In addi­tion, the cen­tral Sahel is marked by increased politi­ci­sa­tion and instru­men­tal­i­sa­tion of human­i­tar­i­an aid. What all these sit­u­a­tions have in com­mon is increas­ing­ly lim­it­ed human­i­tar­i­an access, with obsta­cles being placed in the way of such access to the detri­ment of the peo­ple in need.

In 2023 these human­i­tar­i­an crises have pushed more than 350 mil­lion peo­ple into sit­u­a­tions of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and depen­dence on human­i­tar­i­an aid. While the funds need­ed to meet these needs have reached new records, the same was true of the fund­ing gap. Only one third of the EUR57 bil­lion claimed by the Unit­ed Nations Office for the Coor­di­na­tion of Human­i­tar­i­an Affairs (OCHA) in 2023 has been dis­bursed, con­sti­tut­ing the largest bud­get deficit in years.