December 15, 2021 — Today, the International Rescue Committee’s new Emergency Watchlist 2022 report reveals that Afghanistan is the country most at risk of humanitarian deterioration in the coming year. The report finds that the global system is failing to address humanitarian crises - and even driving further conflict and suffering - with women and girls paying the highest price.
The stark warning of deterioration in Afghanistan, comes as the Disasters Emergency Committee launches an urgent appeal so DEC members - including the IRC - can scale up their work to support the most vulnerable in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has topped the International Rescue Committee (IRC) annual Emergency Watchlist report which analyses the top 20 humanitarian crises most at risk of deterioration 2022. This year’s report warns of System Failure: where the global mechanisms for preventing and addressing crises are not only failing, but also directly fueling conflict, record displacement and humanitarian need.
The crisis in Afghanistan is a symptom of this trend. More than 22 million people - over half the population - are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Before August, Afghans had already suffered enormously. Women and children have borne the brunt of the conflict, comprising around half of all civilian casualties in 2021. Yet with limited efforts to hold those responsible to account, impunity has become another marker of this horrific crisis.
Afghanistan ranks last out of 170 countries for women’s equality. Now, spurred by the withdrawal of international support, sanctions and asset freezes which are driving an economic and public service collapse, women and girls face a new chapter in their suffering. The risk of gender-based violence, child marriage, and exploitation and abuse has risen significantly as resources become scarce and needs go unmet.
The IRC is calling on the UK Government to harness the combined efforts of British diplomacy and development to lead an accelerated response to the needs of women and girls in Afghanistan, as well as longer term commitments to strengthen the global system to prevent conflict.
The Foreign Secretary’s commitment to prioritise support for women and girls is a positive step. Afghanistan is the first test of the UK’s resolve. On Monday the Foreign Secretary announced £75m of UK emergency aid, channelled through UN organisations and frontline NGOs like the IRC, as part of the Prime Minister’s pledge of £286 million towards Afghanistan this year. The UK should increase financial aid to the country and use its diplomatic influence to press the de facto authorities in Afghanistan to ensure that the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan are upheld.
Laura Kyrke-Smith, Executive Director for the International Rescue Committee UK, said:
“IRC has worked in Afghanistan for over 30 years and we’ve never witnessed such a bleak and desperate reality. Conflict, climate change, COVID are driving the country towards a humanitarian catastrophe this winter that could have regional and global ramifications. The withdrawal of development assistance and freezing of assets have left public services incapacitated and the economy in tatters. With over 8 million people on the brink of famine the situation could not be more grave and we know that women and girls are amongst the first to suffer in food crises. Our teams already report that nearly all clients who have attended our clinics are women bringing malnourished children for urgent help.
What is happening in Afghanistan is predictable and preventable. The Foreign Secretary has already announced a welcome commitment to support women and girls in conflict. But, if she is serious about the UK leading the way in addressing the risks facing women and girls in fragile settings, she must use every tool at her disposal to support Afghanistan, through increasing aid and diplomatic pressure.
These efforts cannot be contained to one crisis. If ‘Global Britain’ is to live up to its name as a ‘force for good’ in the world that champions our ideas and inspires partners to join our cause, the Foreign Secretary needs to be at the forefront of reform efforts needed to avert the system failure that is driving humanitarian needs and undermining the global response to them. Her recent announcement on tackling sexual violence in conflict is a welcome start. Now is the time for further urgent action.”
Editors notes:
System Failure
Watchlist 2022 details how the global system for preventing and addressing humanitarian crisis, built on the twin pillars of, first, state sovereignty and responsibility, and second, international law and rights, is failing. “System Failure,” which is driving record levels of need, is characterized by: states failing in their duties to their citizens; diplomacy failing to resolve conflicts; a legal regime failing to protect well-established rights for civilians; and humanitarian operations prevented from filling the widening gaps.
The drivers behind System Failure, and record levels of global need, are threefold. The first is the conflagration of conflict, with the increasing involvement of third-party actors and a weakening of peacemaking, resulting in just 21 peace agreements last year, the lowest figure since the Cold War. The second is the fragmentation of global politics, especially through the lens of the UN Security Council: rather than resolve existing crises, the Council is complicit in perpetuating them, with the use of the veto more than doubling since the 1990s. The third driver is the retreat from universal human rights in favor of national sovereignty - preventing accountability for violations, restricting humanitarian access and funding to the world’s worst crises.
IRC Recommendations: Total System Upgrade
Tackling the symptoms: Humanitarian Action
Funding
- Redirect official development assistance (ODA) to target contexts hit hardest by System Failure: Donors should commit 50% - a doubling of current assistance - of ODA to fragile and conflict-affected states.
- Bring crisis settings into the fight against climate change by increasing the proportion of financing directed to them and dedicating half of the annual $100 billion commitment to developing countries for adaptation needs.
COVID/Vaccines
- Combat global COVID inequity by redistributing excess vaccines from wealthy countries, removing obstacles to countries in the Global South to produce vaccines, and financing distribution in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
Displacement
- Commit to a “New Deal for those Forcibly Displaced’ by resettling 400,000 refugees in 2022 and supporting debt relief for states on the frontlines of the world’s refugee crisis.
Tackling the root causes:
- Support the French proposal to suspend the veto in the UN Security Council in cases of mass atrocities to overcome the Council’s paralysis on some of the world’s most severe conflicts.
- Establish an Organization for the Protection of Humanitarian Access to bring new status and force to expose the strangulation and weaponization of humanitarian aid.
- Build commitment to international humanitarian law (IHL) into global military partnerships.
- Use the legal principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute those committing egregious abuses and violations of international humanitarian law as a blow against impunity and a warning to would-be violators of humanitarian law.
- Combat the fueling of hate and division by pressing social media companies to prioritize conflict-affected settings where tensions online risk spilling over into real world crisis dynamics.
The full list of IRC’s 2022 Emergency Watchlist is:
Ranked
- Afghanistan
- Ethiopia
- Yemen
- Nigeria
- South Sudan
- DRC
- Myanmar
- Somalia
- Syria
- Sudan
Unranked:
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Lebanon
- Mali
- Mozambique
- Niger
- Venezuela