Conflict and climate change are increasing the number of humanitarian emergencies. They occur simultaneously around the world, threatening to overwhelm organisations who are responding and undermining years of development work, Concern World Chief Executive David Regan warned.
His comments followed the publication of Concern’s 2022 annual report which showed that the Irish-based humanitarian organisation reached 36 million people last year in 25 of the poorest and most vulnerable countries in the world.
“Although 2022 has been a tremendously challenging year, Concern’s appeals have again demonstrated people’s generosity to those living in desperate circumstances,” he said. “During the year Concern responded to the needs of 65,000 internally displaced people in Ukraine, 3.2 million impacted by flooding in Pakistan, and over one million people struggling to survive the record drought in the Horn of Africa.”
“What’s clear is that simultaneous, large-scale emergencies are now becoming the norm. The declining percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty which we saw between 2009 and 2018, has been halted by a combination of conflict, COVID and climate change.”
2022 Highlights
The highlights of Concern’s work during 2022 included:
- Concern responded to 76 emergencies in 23 countries, reaching approximately 8.1 million people. In Syria, it reached 290,000 people with food vouchers, cash-for-work schemes, and agricultural training.
- Its livelihoods programmes reached 5.4 million people to enable extremely poor people to have secure livelihoods. The Malawi programme reached 288,000 people with interventions including climate-smart agriculture training and food processing techniques.
- Over 1.7 million were reached by Concern’s health and nutrition programmes. The response to a cholera outbreak in Haiti included mass awareness sessions, door-to-door visits and distribution of water purification tablets to help prevent the spread of the disease. In northern Iraq water, sanitation and health services were provided to 117,000 displaced people.
- Its education programmes directly benefited 131,000 people. In Niger Concern expanded its program in the conflict-affected regions of Tillaberi and Tahoua to reach 250 schools, supporting 1,500 teachers and providing access to education for 57,000 children.
- Concern’s integrated programmes, which adopt a holistic approach to tackling barriers that impede development for extremely poor people, reached 1.2 million people. In South Sudan over 434,000 people were provided with nutrition services, and Concern operated water holes, provided shelter materials and supported food distributions.
Concern Worldwide’s income was €250 million last year —the highest annual income in the organisation’s history. This was the result of higher donations and legacies from the public, as well as increased grants from governments and institutions.
“The scale of the work done and the challenges tackled by Concern’s staff around the world last year is made possible by the unstinting generosity of our supporters and donors,” Mr Regan said. “We greatly value their support and trust. We will continue to work to be transparent and accountable to our donors, staff and most importantly the communities with which we work.”