Launch of the UN Global Humanitarian Overview 2022

On December 2, 2021, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will co-host the Washington DC launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview 2022—one of six sequential global launches centered around climate change and humanitarian action.

The opening session will include keynote remarks by Ms. Samantha Power, Administrator, USAID; a video message by UN Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres and remarks by Mr. Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator who will present the latest trends, analysis, challenges and opportunities in humanitarian action, as well as an overview of the coordinated plans for humanitarian response in 2022.

The GHO launch in Washington DC will include an interactive panel discussion on “Climate, Gender, and Humanitarian Response: Protecting and Empowering Women and Girls.” Climate change puts millions of lives at risk and is creating unprecedented humanitarian need. In the last 20 months alone, 658 million people have been exposed to extreme temperature events. Climate change erodes agricultural production, deepens poverty, and aggravates the underlying political, social, and economic conditions that can provoke conflict in fragile contexts. The climate crisis affects communities around the world, impacts women and girls disproportionately, and threatens to reinforce and exacerbate existing gender inequalities. Thereby, increasing the risk of gender-based violence – including intimate partner violence, trafficking, sexual violence, and child, early, and forced marriage, particularly in humanitarian contexts. Empowered women play a critical role humanitarian responses, often as first responders, including to climate induced crises, due to their local knowledge and leadership at the household and community levels. To appropriately respond to growing humanitarian needs, women and girls must be put at the center of all responses. 

The panel will feature Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Antelak Al-Mutawakel, Co- founder, Youth Leadership Development Foundation (YLDF), Ms. Claudia Herrera, Executive Secretary, CEPREDENAC, and Ms. Sarah Charles, Assistant to the Administrator, USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The panel will be moderated by  Dr. Aruna Rao, Co-founder, Gender at Work and livestreamed on this page.

This event is made possible by the generous support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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