These measures lay the foundation for urgent action needed now more than ever in the world’s proliferating humanitarian crises, mired in the triple threat of untended conflict, unmitigated climate change and the scourge of Covid-19.
Covid-19 has shown that we live in a connected world. Analysis by the International Chamber of Commerce found that the global economy could lose
as much as $9.2 trillion if vaccines are not equitably distributed to low-income countries, with wealthy nations bearing half that loss. Unmanaged instability, insecurity, migration and climate change have similar consequences for US interests.
Urgent and expansive humanitarian action from the new administration is therefore a necessity and not a luxury. America’s absence during the previous administration created a spiral of disengagement that has left the world leaderless at this crucial time. And while the US cannot resolve these challenges alone, US leadership can encourage others to share the burden.
Covid-19 takes priority because it has brought the world to its knees.
Of the nearly $4 trillion has allocated to combat the pandemic,
just less than 0.2% has been allocated to support the international Covid-19 response, including $4 billion for the global vaccine effort. The ICC study indicates that the $27.2 billion needed to close the gap on global vaccine distribution could deliver a return “
as high as 166 times the investment.”
So, too, will there be returns on addressing deepening malnutrition, poverty, health and education losses due to the pandemic. President Biden’s proposal of an
extra $11 billion is a start, but it will take more.
The US can galvanize global partners
by allocating $20 billion to the global response, in its new Covid-19 action package, and calling on wealthy nations to do their fair share.
The second order of business is restoring stability to the world’s worst crisis zones before they get worse. Humanitarian appeals for IRC’s Watchlist countries have been organized for an average of 11 consecutive years. Sustained improvement in these destabilizing displacement crises will deliver humanitarian and strategic benefit — but it will take aid, diplomacy, sustained engagement and coordination with donors, UN agencies and international financial institutions.
Dedicating 50% of humanitarian and development assistance to crisis-affected countries would reorder US priorities and tools to help stabilize these protracted crises. And it would deliver cost savings: The
Institute for Economics and Peace estimates that for every $1 the US spends on conflict prevention, it
saves $16 in response costs. Women and girls bear the greatest brunt of humanitarian crises and are critical to resolving them and rebuilding their communities. With women representing
70% of the global care workforce and producing as much as
70% of the food in some low-income nations, there is a double dividend in prioritizing them.
Instead, IRC’s analysis indicates that
less than 1% of global humanitarian funding is allocated to prevention and response to gender-based violence. A threefold increase in funding to prevent and respond to gender violence in humanitarian settings sends a strong signal that the Biden administration will lead the world in empowering women and ending violence against them.
Nowhere has the global retreat from humanitarian obligations been more visible than in the treatment of refugees. The Trump administration led a global race to the bottom, with 2020 the year with the
fewest refugees resettled globally in two decades, and many refugees under
increasing pressure from their hosts. The US can drive a new and different bargain with major refugee-hosting nations, with incentives to allow refugees rights to work such that refugees can move from aid dependency to self-reliance.
The US cannot lead without getting its own house in order — keeping President Biden’s commitment to resettle
125,000 refugees in his first year; building a humane, credible, efficient US asylum system that protects those in need of safety;
reinvigorating humanitarian diplomacy, engagement with the UN and the multilateral financing institutions to leverage US resettlement and aid into global action. 2021 celebrates the 70th anniversary of the
Refugee Convention. The
EU is negotiating a migration pact that will chart its course on resettlement and asylum. And the US is hosting the
Summit of the Americas. Each of these are opportunities to drive greater global cooperation on refugees.
When war crimes go unpunished and the laws of war become optional, we all lose. Yet today we are living through a growing Age of Impunity. Perpetrators of violence and their autocratic enablers have defined a new and dangerous road map for civil conflicts, with indiscriminate and often purposeful attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, food and medicine withheld as weapons of war, and access to populations in need blocked. These are factors that sustain conflict and drive displacement, with their attendant consequences for lives, livelihoods and regional stability.
If the US does not pledge to fight this, then no one else can. Again, action begins at home: Biden’s ending of American support for offensive operations in Yemen and
suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia is a start to
ensuring US security partners prioritize efforts to protect civilians in conflict and access to populations in need.
With the US presidency of the UN Security Council in March, the Biden administration can lead the world in reinvigorating the laws of war and rally other democratic nations to hold violators accountable.
It is tempting to say that America has more than enough on its plate on the home front. But there is no escape from pressing international events. Neglect them, and we magnify the problems on the home front. Almost 60 years ago, President John F. Kennedy outlined the need for a
“Declaration of Interdependence” and urged Americans to “think intercontinentally.” It is way past the time to heed his call.
