rights, but it is also clear that ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health is a pathway to recovery, risk reduction and resilience. The benefits extend to women and girls—and beyond. When they can obtain sexual and reproductive health care, along with a variety of humanitarian programmes that deliberately tackle inequalities, positive effects ripple throughout all aspects of humanitarian action. Unsustainable funding calls for the transformation of humanitarian action
The lion’s share of humanitarian action is coordinated and managed by major international players, including the United Nations, and has been traditionally funded by donor nations that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, but other countries and private donations are beginning to play an important role too. The demand for humanitarian assistance has grown every year since 2011, but funding has not increased at the same pace, leaving unprecedented
RESILIENCE Photo Š UNFPA/Ben Manser
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A FRAG I LE WO RLD
A fundamental shift is needed: away from reacting to disasters and conflicts as they unfold and sometimes linger for decades, towards prevention, preparedness and empowerment of individuals and communities to withstand and recover from them.
gaps, translating into inadequate or insufficient responses for millions of people in need. The ever-enlarging gaps suggest current funding arrangements may be unsustainable. So, too, may be a business-as-usual approach to humanitarian action.