NPR’s Scott Simon speaks to David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, about the group’s 2024 Watchlist highlighting 20 countries facing humanitarian crises.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The International Rescue Committee’s annual watch list of global crises is out next week. It is a tough but essential read for anybody interested in, well, peace. The report tries to measure progress and regress in places that face humanitarian crises. It also looks at the correlation between calamities and armed conflicts. It highlights 20 countries that hold about a tenth of the world’s population but carry about 86% of those people who face humanitarian crises.
David Miliband is the president and CEO of the IRC. Of course, he’s also the former British foreign secretary. He joins us now from New York. Mr. Miliband, thanks so much for being with us.
DAVID MILIBAND: Thank you so much for having me on.
SIMON: Where would you like us to look?
MILIBAND: I think that the most striking thing about this watchlist this year is that some of the obvious places – Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan – have dropped out of the Top 10 of the watchlist of humanitarian crises. In the Top 10 is obviously the crisis in Gaza. You’d expect that. All the headlines are devoted there. But No. 1 is Sudan, a country in the northeast of Africa – 25 million people in humanitarian need. And No. 3 is South Sudan, where some of the refugees – about 400,000 from Sudan – have gone.
And our point is that eight of the Top 10 crises – humanitarian crises in the world – are in Africa, and that while the concentration on Gaza is understandable, it shouldn’t mean that these other crises are neglected because what we do know is when a humanitarian crisis is neglected, not only does the problem magnify; but it leads to political instability.
SIMON: What role does climate change play, do you think?
MILIBAND: Well, I use the phrase climate crisis, not climate…
Read the full article here