Global humanitarian system ‘no longer fit for purpose,’ warn US researchers

(SeaPRwire) –   LONDON, England — Civilians are in dire straits from Sudan to Gaza, hospitals are being targeted, and the humanitarian aid system is unable to keep pace, per a new report published in the Lancet medical journal. 

“Given the kinds of emergencies we’re facing and their scale, the humanitarian system is no longer fit for its intended role,” Dr. Paul Spiegel, a co-author of the report, stated. 

Spiegel, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-chair of its Center for Humanitarian Health, has decades of experience working in refugee camps and conflict zones globally. “I’ve been in this field for more than 30 years,” he noted. “We’re going through an extremely dark period right now.”

Pointing to one of the world’s most severe crises — Sudan’s brutal civil war, where tens of millions face need as hospitals shut down and famine spreads — the expert panel behind the report asserts that while the world has the knowledge to save lives, the system is falling short in delivering help. The report, named ‘Health in a World of Crises and Impunity,’ claims some agencies are overly bureaucratic, while others are too sluggish. They emphasize that the entire system requires an overhaul.

The report contends that the United Nations needs reform, and in the U.S., it draws attention to the Trump Administration’s closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) due to alleged fraud and misuse. 

In the course of that restructuring, numerous critical USAID programs were merged into the State Department, but the report describes the closure of USAID as “shocking” and “abrupt,” and part of a series of decisions in the U.S. and other countries that it denounces as “a political and moral failure.”

“USAID did require restructuring,” Spiegel said. “The U.N. needs a major restructuring too. But the key is the way you go about it.

“The approach should ensure that vulnerable communities worldwide aren’t harmed, but that’s not how it was carried out.”

The authors are advocating for sweeping global reforms, such as revamping funding mechanisms, delivering aid directly to local communities, increasing accountability when governments or armed groups block aid, and upholding healthcare as a fundamental human right.

“This is truly a full rebalancing,” Spiegel explained, “to ensure the system actually serves the people it’s meant to assist.”