UN calls for investment in humanitarian operations

The number of people affected by humanitarian crises has almost doubled in the past decade.

The United Nations and its partners continue to respond to humanitarian needs and emergencies resulting from conflict and/or global challenges such as climate change and environmental degradation.

In response to these crises, new actors have taken a larger part in humanitarian action and various partnership models have arisen

The rising scale of needs, the persistence of protracted crises and the interplay of new risks have led to a continued global deficit in the capacity of Governments and humanitarian organizations to respond.

Development cannot be sustainable unless the risk of crises is addressed proactively as a joint priority.

There is a critical need to help countries and communities to better adapt and quickly recover when such emergencies occur.

In the immediate area of conflict, the primary aim is preventing human casualties and ensuring access to the basics for survival: water, sanitation, food, shelter, and health care.

Away from the main fighting, the priority is to assist people who have been displaced, prevent the spread of conflict, support relief work, and prepare for rehabilitation.

External development assistance, to reconstruct a country's infrastructure, institutions, and economy, is often a key part of the peace accord in the aftermath of war. This assistance ensures that the country can develop, instead of sliding back into conflict.

The most important principle of development assistance is the use of aid conditionality to promote economic and political practices that strengthen peacebuilding.