In Message to Launch of 2025 Humanitarian Overview, Secretary-General Says $47 Billion Needed to Assist 190 Million People across 72 Countries

Following is UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ message to the launch of the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview, in Geneva, Nairobi and Kuwait City today:

The 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview is an indictment of our failings as an international community.  A record number of armed conflicts are inflicting enormous pain and suffering — from Gaza, to Sudan, Ukraine and beyond.

Nearly 123 million people have been forcibly displaced — the twelfth consecutive annual increase.  Aid delivery is being strangled, deepening hunger and food insecurity, with famine imminent in Gaza and Sudan.

The climate crisis is sending temperatures soaring to deadly new records every year, causing floods, droughts, heatwaves and wildfires across the globe.  All this humanitarian havoc is placing 305 million people in need of assistance globally.

Women and children are the hardest hit as they endure and flee these emergencies.  And humanitarians are suffering alongside them, with 282 aid workers killed this year alone.

Despite the danger, these brave women and men reached more than 116 million people in 2024 with food, shelter, medicine, water, sanitation and protection.  They did so in the face of a massive funding shortfall — just 43 per cent of the estimated $49.6 billion required.

We cannot help the people enduring these nightmares with less than half the help required.  Today’s growing crises need more support, not less.  In 2025, the United Nations is appealing to donors for $47 billion to assist 190 million people across 72 countries.

In addition to a surge of funding, we need a surge of political will to ensure adherence to international humanitarian law, invest in development, resilience and climate action, and protect civilians and aid workers as they carry out their life-saving task.

Let’s make 2025 a year in which we ease human suffering, heal divisions and make progress to a better, more peaceful and hopeful future for all people.