International Disaster Assistance

Description

The International Disaster Assistance (IDA) account provides critical humanitarian assistance to civilian populations in response to natural hazards, conflict and insecurity, and other sudden onset emergencies in their home or host countries.

Use of Funds

Through the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, IDA funds support humanitarian services, including emergency food, water, shelter, health care, protection, and agricultural rehabilitation. Funds help countries prepare for, respond to, and recover from humanitarian crises and reduce underlying vulnerabilities through disaster risk reduction programming.

Justification

• In 2022, 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection, an increase of almost 17%or 235 million people last year.
• By the end of 2020, 82.4 million people were forcibly displaced, including 48 million internally displaced people “because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order.”
• Conflict is the main driver of hunger. At the end of 2020, over 88 million people suffered from acute hunger due to conflict and instability, a 20% increase since 2019.
• In 2020, 389 climate-related disasters were recorded, causing 15,080 deaths, impacting 98.4 million, and wreaking $171.3 billion in economic damage.
• For 2022, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released a humanitarian response plan for the U.N. and partner organizations to assist 183 million people most in need across 63 countries at $41 billion.