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Journal Article

The number of people affected by disasters and the cost of responding is growing considerably (Guha-Sapir et al., 2014). There are trends in these numbers in that deaths from floods and storms are on the rise, possibly related to the consequences of climate change. In fact, seven out of the top 10 natural disasters by number of deaths in 2015 were weather related events such as floods and heat waves (UNISDR, 2016). These also tend to occur in densely populated regions, e.g. in Asia, where 71.8% of the worldwide disaster related deaths occurred in 2015 (UNISDR, 2016), so there are geographical shifts as well. Roughly, about 250 million people are affected by disasters every year (IFRC, 2016).

These figures obviously do not include the higher number of people affected by man-made disasters like armed conflicts and wars. These types of disasters have a large impact on the number of refugees and internally displaced persons. This number reached a sad historical record of over 59 million people in 2014 (UNHCR, 2016).

Population growth, climate change, and their potential impact on migration, urbanization, and resulting food and water shortages may lead to more conflict and war. It is clear that the impact of disasters on human life is going to increase in the future. This increase and its associated demand for resources should be put against the current decline in funding to appreciate the challenges humanitarian organizations (HOs) are facing. Humanitarian operations are about logistics and politics. The logistics relate to the operations necessary to bring the aid to beneficiaries. They are about matching demand with supply under severe resource constraints, uncertainty, and lack of visibility. The politics relate to the willingness of the international community to provide the necessary funds as well as the access, i.e. to protect the humanitarian space HOs require to guarantee neutrality and equity to all people in need.