“Yemen is a country wracked by chronic poverty and underdevelopment, and millions of Yemenis are struggling to cope,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos.

“People need food, water, education and health care. But they also want to know that there is investment to secure their future. We urgently need more funding to help those in need.”

More than 10 million people in Yemen – almost half the country’s population – are either hungry or on the edge of hunger with very high rates of food insecurity. Child malnutrition rates are among the highest in the world with close to half of Yemen’s children under 5 years old – around 2 million children – suffering from stunting.

Following a visit to the country, Ms. Amos and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, called on countries, particularly those in the Gulf region, to step up humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

This year, WFP aims to provide almost 5 million people in 16 governorates with food assistance and is working to build community resilience.

“WFP is providing life-saving food assistance to almost 5 million Yemenis to break the intergenerational cycle of hunger,” said Ms. Cousin. “We will continue this vital food assistance by improving food security and nutrition but at the same time helping build resilience of these communities. We are working to ensure families themselves are able to take care of their food needs through food for work, food for training and other income generating activities.

“We count on the support of our donors and the strong partnership with the Government of Yemen to help communities free themselves from the cycle of hunger.”

During their visit, Ms. Amos and Ms. Cousin met senior Government officials, to discuss humanitarian needs and the challenges facing the country. They also met non-governmental organizations, women leaders, humanitarian partners, and representatives of the donor community.

In addition, they travelled to the city of Hudeidah, where they saw first-hand efforts to combat malnutrition and food insecurity. They visited nutrition and health care clinics supported by WFP and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and saw the offloading of WFP food supplies at the Hudeidah Port. They also visited the Al Mazraq camp in Harad, where people displaced by the conflict in Sa’ada still live, and visited a centre where stranded migrants from the Horn of Africa receive assistance from the International Organization for Migration.

Yemen faces multiple humanitarian crises. Out of a population of 24 million, over half need some form of humanitarian aid. More than half of the population does not have access to clean water and proper sanitation, and one million children suffer from acute malnutrition.

“Halfway through this year we are seeing people in desperate need in twenty countries, whose lives and livelihoods have been shattered by conflict, hunger and disaster,” said the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos.

“As well as providing effective emergency aid, humanitarian organizations are also working to improve the resilience of communities so that they can better cope with the impact of future natural disasters and conflicts,” she added.

In a news release, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which Amos heads, noted that the number of people needing assistance had risen from 51 million to 62 million – an increase of more than 20 per cent – during the first half of this year.

A large number of these people are in the African continent, with more than 18 million people facing a severe food and nutrition crisis in countries of the Sahel region, which includes Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and parts of Sudan, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Conflict has worsened the situation in Mali, as well as in South Sudan, which is coping with increasing numbers of refugees from Sudan who have fled conflict in border areas.

Food insecurity, malnutrition and insecurity have also worsened the situation in Yemen, where 60 per cent of children under five are chronically malnourished – a rate second only to Afghanistan, where so far this year, more than 200,000 people have been affected by some 300 natural disasters. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people are being affected by the intensifying armed conflict in Syria, which has caused many to flee to neighbouring countries.

To respond strategically to major crises and monitor the effectiveness of their work, OCHA said that some 560 humanitarian aid organizations are using the Consolidated Appeal Process, a tool used by aid organisations to plan, implement and monitor their activities together. Collaborating in the world’s crisis regions, they produce appeals, which they present to the international community and donors.

As of today, the agency reported, humanitarian partners have raised their funding requirements, from $7.8 billion, at the beginning of the year, to $8.8 billion. However, while 45 per cent of the funding required has been received, a gap of $4.8 billion for what is left of the year remains.

“We have reached at least 21 million people so far with humanitarian aid, but our partners need further resources to reach everyone in need,” said Amos. “I commend humanitarian donors for maintaining their generosity and commitment to effective, coordinated and timely aid.”

One year ago, the statement noted, Syrians emboldened by the changing tide of history in their region stood up in the streets of Damascus to appeal for their universal rights and freedoms. Peaceful popular protests then began to spread across the country. “The Syrian authorities responded with brutal repression, which has continued unabated.”

Mr. Ban voiced his solidarity with the people of Syria and their legitimate aspirations to dignity, freedom and justice, and called for all violence to end and for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

He urged the Syrian Government and opposition to cooperate with the efforts of the Joint Special Envoy of the UN and the League of Arab States, Kofi Annan, who put forward proposals to end the crisis during his meetings in Damascus, including with President Bashar al-Assad, last weekend.

“I presented a set of concrete proposals which would have a real impact on the situation on the ground and which will help launch a process aimed at putting an end to this crisis,” Mr. Annan stated during the visit. “I told the President that my main preoccupation is the welfare of the Syrian people – that we should place the interests of the people at the centre of all our efforts.”

Tens of thousands of people have been caught up in the violence since the start of the uprising, which is part of the broader Arab Spring movement across North Africa and the Middle East.

“As intense fighting continues in Syria, and people are caught up in the violence, it is increasingly vital that humanitarian organizations have unhindered access to identify urgent needs and provide emergency care and basic supplies. There is no time to waste,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in a statement.

Ms. Amos, who visited Syria last week to press for unhindered humanitarian access, said the authorities have now informed her that a Government-led mission will visit the governorates of Homs, Hama, Tartous, Lattakia, Aleppo, Dayr Az Zor, Rural Damascus and Deraa, starting this weekend.

A number of UN and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) technical staff will accompany the mission and take the opportunity to gather information on the overall humanitarian situation and observe first-hand the conditions in various towns and cities.

“I repeat my calls to the Government of Syria to allow humanitarian organizations unhindered access, so that they can help people in need, in a neutral and impartial manner,” said Ms. Amos, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.