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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Providing humanitarian assistance
>> Foreign Aid in the National Interest >> Overview >> Providing humanitarian assistance Jump to Overview Sections:
>> 50 years of development gains >> Promoting democratic governance >> Driving economic growth >> Improving people's health >> Mitigating and managing conflict >> Providing humanitarian assistance >> The full measure of U.S. development assistance-official and private >> Notes >> Background papers >> ReferencesHumanitarian emergencies in falied and failing states
The defining disaster of the 1990s was conflictrelated, and the recent growth in humanitarian aid was largely driven by the devastation in failed and failing states. In the late 1980s five manmade humanitarian emergencies were declared on average each year. In 1990 there were 20. And after reaching a high of 26 in 1994, they averaged 22 a year in the last half of the decade.44 The majority of were directly related to conflict or severe government repression. Countries from every region made up the list, including Angola, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Indonesia, Afghanistan, North Korea, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia- Montenegro, Tajikistan, Colombia, and Haiti.
By the end of 2000, intrastate conflicts and repression had generated some 14.5 million refugees and asylum seekers worldwide and more than 20 million people displaced within their own countries. The number of refugees was just below 10 million in 1984, peaked at some 16.3 million in 1993-94, and only then began to decline. Significant refugee repatriations from peace settlements in Namibia, Central America, Cambodia, and Mozambique contributed to the decline. Unfortunately, conflicts in Africa, especially the Great Lakes Region, and elsewhere partially offset these gains. At the end of 2000, Palestinians (4 million), Afghans (3.6 million), and Sudanese (460,000) were the largest refugee populations, more than half the total. Six of the top ten refugee-generating countries were in Africa
The rise in internally displaced persons has been even more dramatic. From an estimated 1.2 million in 11 countries in 1982, the number rose to 11-14 million in 20 countries in 1986 and to more than 20 million in 40 countries in 1997 (where it remains). Sudan and Angola have most internally displaced people, followed by Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.48 This trend reflects the increased number of ongoing internal conflicts. It also reflects improved access to some displaced populations (and more accurate counts) and the world’s efforts to limit refugee flows through assistance models that attempt to keep people within their national borders.
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Last Updated on: October 07, 2009 |
