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In the eight months that have passed since the humanitarian community came together in the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP), the virus has spread around the world and affected entire economies and societies. Millions of people have been pushed to the brink of survival. The magnitude of the effects is still ongoing.
As of November 16, there were more than 15.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in GHRP countries and 518,000 deaths. This accounts for over 31% of global cases and over 41% of global deaths. The number of reported cases and deaths has thankfully been lower than originally feared in many of the countries with humanitarian needs, but it was the secondary impacts that have been and will continue to be devastating for many of the people living in these countries.
At the beginning of the year, humanitarian partners aimed to provide humanitarian assistance to 109 million people. Today, that number has reached record highs with over 260 million people. This represents the largest increase in a single year. The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing and ongoing factors of humanitarian need, mainly by causing the decline of economic activities, reducing household purchasing power and causing a multitude of food system shocks. The latest evidence shows that acute food insecurity worsened in many countries between March and September 2020. The recent FAO-WFP Early Warning Risk Analysis has raised the alarm for 20 countries and situations that face potential spikes of acute food insecurity and that require urgent attention. Notably, Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria, and Burkina Faso have areas of extreme concern and further deterioration in the coming months could lead to a risk of famine.1 Common factors driving acute food insecurity spike include acute food insecurity. increasing insecurity and violence, including by extremist groups, economic and trade disturbances, displacement and rising food prices. For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces multiple and large-scale complex crises, including prolonged insecurity, mass displacement and resurgence of Ebola virus and other diseases.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the highest number of people (21.8 million) with high acute food insecurity ever recorded for a single country. Zimbabwe faces multiple vulnerabilities, including consecutive poor farming seasons, ongoing macroeconomic challenges, and COVID-19 impacts. In Afghanistan, armed conflict and economic stressors such as widespread unemployment and inflation are likely to continue to cause food insecurity and aggravate the COVID-19 situation. In the coming months, these factors, combined with humanitarian access constraints, could further exacerbate the situation in at-risk areas, leading to widespread deaths, acute malnutrition and starvation, and an irreversible loss of livelihoods.
COVID-19 has exacerbated protection challenges, particularly for migrants, refugees, displaced persons, the elderly, people with disabilities, children and other vulnerable groups. About 149 countries have completely or partially closed borders. At least 72 countries make no exception for people seeking asylum, severely limiting the rights of people in need of international protection. The gender impact of the pandemic is also clear: women and girls are disproportionately affected and gender-based violence (GBV) has increased. However, the funding needed to help mitigate further suffering for women and girls was not made available.
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