"All crises featured in this year’s report are protracted and have been affecting the lives of communities for years, sometimes even decades. The calamity in Sudan is a stark warning of what happens when neglect deepens and the world turns its back on a crisis. In 2023 Sudan plunged into devastating warfare, forcing over 10 million people to flee their homes and making Sudan the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. Despite the severity of the situation, the looming threat of famine and the immense needs, the country remains on this list, and the people of Sudan remain neglected.
This year’s list represents a race to the bottom, with Burkina Faso maintaining its position as the world’s most neglected displacement crisis for the second year running. The country saw a record-breaking 707,000 new displacements and hundreds of thousands of people cut off from aid. Media coverage fell as access became more difficult for both journalists and humanitarian organisations. Meanwhile, the situation in the country worsened and needs rose at a rapid pace.
Across the world, there was a record-breaking USD 32 billion shortfall in aid budgets, leaving 57 per cent of humanitarian needs unmet in 2023. The human cost of the growing funding gap is high, and it is life-shattering for millions across the world. Neglect has become so ingrained and normalised that the reality of this gap no longer elicits shock. In many of the countries on this list, the gap translates into people not having enough to eat, families fleeing over and over again in search of safety and resources, children unable to access education, and individuals losing their means of earning an income.
The funding gap means humanitarian organisations struggling to reach those most in need, selective allocation of aid, and compounding crises. It means that when severe climate disasters hit, people will not be prepared to withstand potentially disastrous consequences. Neglect is also fuelling rising hunger levels across all countries on our 2023 list. Each country is now experiencing, or is predicted to experience, severe levels of hunger. Food insecurity is in turn compounded by cuts or suspension of humanitarian and development funding.
Most of the countries are dealing with the effects of conflict both within and outside their borders. War in Sudan spills over into poverty-stricken Chad and South Sudan, while Cameroon grapples with mounting internal pressure amid a broader regional conflict. Protracted neglect has consequences that cross borders and create crises within crises.
Society finds itself in a state of crisis fatigue. Travesty after travesty is splashed across news screens but distressing images no longer retain their shock value, and the page is simply swiped, flipped, or clicked away. Amidst this worrying desensitisation and the acceptance of record-breaking statistics from the world’s neglected displacement crises as the new normal, lies the danger of complacency. We must not give up hope and allow ourselves to become numbed by the ceaseless barrage of crises. We need a reboot of global compassion and a refocus on where needs are greatest." (Page 4)