World Humanitarian Day 2022
Mosa, a man with disability from Madagascar, is kneeling on the ground and cultivating the land with a spade. CBM/Viviane Rakotoarivony
This World Humanitarian Day, August 19th, shines a light on the hundreds of thousands of volunteers, professionals, and crisis-affected people who deliver urgent health care, shelter, food, protection, water, and much more.
Whenever and wherever people are in crisis, there are others who help them. From the affected people themselves - always first to respond when disaster strikes – to the global community that supports them as they recover, they come together to ease suffering and bring hope.
Because, as the saying goes: It takes a village to support people in crisis.
CBM Global Disability Inclusion and the Global Greengrants fund are pleased to share a case study they co-authored on the effects of the climate crisis in Madagascar, the ongoing food crisis, and the barriers that people with disabilities and the organisations that represent them face when trying to access humanitarian aid.
In the past four years, Madagascar has experienced one of the worst food insecurity crises in the country's history as a result of a combination of factors including climate change, environmental degradation such as deforestation and soil exhaustion, the COVID-19 pandemic, and already extreme poverty levels.
The case study describes how these inter-connected crises have an impact on people with disabilities, the obstacles they encounter when participating in community initiatives, their challenges in receiving humanitarian aid, and the necessity of including organisations of people with disabilities in policies for climate mitigation and adaptation.
Christian Modino Hok, CBM Global’s Humanitarian Director, says:
“History shows that conflicts are the main driver of food crises across the world. East-Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan are examples of it. However, the 2021 to 2022 hunger crisis in Southern Madagascar is not only the worst of the past 40 years in the country. It is considered the first climate change-related food crisis in which significant changes in weather patterns that have caused long-term drought combined with chronic poverty have put millions of people on the verge of famine. Amongst them are people with disabilities who are some of the most at risk and unacceptably forgotten by both humanitarian and development actors. We cannot keep looking away and neglecting the significant impact that irresponsible and unaccountable human activity is having in countries that contribute the least to climate change. We need to stop pushing the poorest and most disadvantaged communities to desperate life-threatening situations. It is our moral responsibility to advocate for climate action and disability inclusion to be at the centre of the development agendas.”
Mary Keogh, CBM Global’s Advocacy Director, says:
“The climate crisis most impacts the countries who have contributed the least to climate change. From the little research that is available we know that, at national level, policies on climate adaptation and climate mitigation are not actively engaging the perspectives of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations. This neglects the skills and insight they can bring. Governments, in addition to meeting their 1.5C target, must do better on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in their climate policies and planning. We know this is possible having seen a good example of this following Vanuatu’s newly published National Determined Contributions.”