COVID-19 Impact on Humanitarian Systems

The World faces a public health emergency with the spread of the Coronavirus among 213 countries, areas, or territories. This has called for global and and national coordinated humanitarian efforts, including in countries with existing emergency needs. The UN Secretary General, Antionio Guterres, has warned that the pandemic is the biggest crisis since WWII, and on 25th March 2020, the UN launched a nine-month inter-agency global humanitarian response plan that responds to the direct public health and indirect immediate humanitarian consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Locally, an emergency fund to combat the Coronavirus has been created with over 53 M KWD raised to date. Humanitarian actors have also responded to direct emergency needs towards vulnerable local groups that have been affected by the ongoing crisis.