Annual report

DISASTERS 
AND CRISES
Context
The IFRC and its member National Societies 
observed not only a rise in the number of dis-
asters and crises affecting at-risk communities 
across the world in 2022, but an increase in their 
intensity and complexity.
This resulted in a corresponding rise in the cost 
of response and recovery for systems already 
stress-tested by a series of historic crises with 
regional or global impacts in recent years. At the 
same time, large and small climate-driven disas-
ters continue hit communities across the world.
In Africa, the most common disasters and crises 
were droughts, floods, epidemics, population 
movement, food insecurity, and tropical storms/
cyclones. Several diseases are resurging, such as 
Ebola, cholera, polio, and measles.
In 2022, Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest 
prevalence of hunger than any region in the 
world. Across the region, an estimated 294 
million people were facing severe food inse-
curity, mostly as a result of prolonged drought 
and flooding. For example, in 2022, the Horn of 
Africa was experiencing one of its most severe 
droughts in 40 years.
In the Americas, disasters and crises became 
increasingly complex due to a widening gap in 
access to basic food baskets, the resurgence of 
endemic diseases alongside an unusual increase 
in non-communicable diseases, and atypical 
hurricane seasons.
The Americas region – a place of highly urban-
ized countries with several mega cities and 
with the largest inequality in the world - is also 
prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, 
hurricanes and floods. Migration from south to 
north, including across the deadly Darien jungle, 
continued to expose people on the move to risks 
including trafficking and abuse.
In Asia Pacific, Category 4 to 5 (5 being the high-
est) land-falling tropical storms have doubled 
or tripled in South-East and East Asia. Floods 
remain most frequent and devastating in terms 
of their impact and, in South-East Asia, droughts 
have affected more than 66 million people in the 
past 30 years.
The humanitarian situation in Myanmar and Sri 
Lanka remained very serious and continued 
to deteriorate further in 2022. Concerns over 
access to at-risk populations in Myanmar are 
certain to continue in 2023. Meanwhile, the 
severity of the protracted crisis in Afghanistan 
remained very high.