United Nation./ PHOTO; Pexel Niklas Jeromin
The United Nations and its partners have launched a record $33 billion Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) for 2026, seeking an urgent $23 billion to provide lifesaving support next year to 87 million people affected by conflict, climate disasters, earthquakes, epidemics, and crop failures.
Unveiled on 8th December,2025, the appeal outlines the UN’s most immediate priorities in a year marked by escalating crises and dwindling resources. In total, humanitarians aim to reach 135 million people across 50 countries.
“This appeal sets out where we need to focus our collective energy first: life by life,” said UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
Rising Needs, Shrinking Resources
The GHO comes in the wake of one of the toughest years for humanitarian operations in a decade. Funding for the 2025 appeal plummeted to $12 billion, the lowest level in ten years, leaving millions without essential support.
As a result, humanitarians reached 25 million fewer people than the previous year.
The consequences, Fletcher said, were swift and severe: rising hunger, overstretched health systems, and deep cuts to programmes protecting women and girls. Hundreds of aid organizations were forced to shut down.
“Even as famines hit parts of Sudan and Gaza,” he noted, the system faced a growing gap between need and capacity.
Pressure Points: Palestine, Sudan, Syria
The 2026 overview includes 29 detailed response plans, with the largest appeal allocated to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The UN is seeking $4.1 billion to assist three million people amid the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe there.
Sudan represents the second-largest requirement, with $2.9 billion needed to support 20 million people trapped inside the world’s largest displacement crisis.
An additional $2 billion is planned for the nearly seven million Sudanese who have fled to neighbouring countries.
The largest regional plan is for Syria, where $2.8 billion is needed to assist 8.6 million people still grappling with the consequences of conflict, displacement, and economic collapse.
Humanitarians “Overstretched, Underfunded and Under Attack”
Fletcher used stark language to describe the environment in which aid workers now operate. Over the past year, more than 380 humanitarian workers were killed, the highest number ever recorded.
“Only 20 per cent of our appeals are supported,” he said.
“And we drive the ambulance towards the fire on your behalf. But we are also now being asked to put the fire out. And there is not enough water in the tank. And we are being shot at.”
His remarks underscore the dual reality of mounting global need and increasing danger for those on the front lines.
Mobilizing Member States
Over the next 87 days, humanitarian leaders will take the appeal to UN Member States in an effort to secure commitments ahead of 2026.
The timeline is symbolic “one for each of the million lives that we will set out to save,” Fletcher said.
The UN is also calling on governments to do more than fund operations: they are urging Member States to protect humanitarian workers and hold accountable those responsible for attacks.
Countries, Fletcher stressed, must act “not with statements of concern, but by holding to account those killing us – and those arming those killing us.”
As the world enters another year of overlapping crises, the success of the 2026 appeal may determine whether millions receive lifesaving aid—or continue to face worsening conditions in silence.
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