Introduction

Much humanitarian practice now takes place in complex environments, in which humanitarian need is exacerbated by conflict. Conflict causes civilian injury and death, and destruction of housing, critical infrastructure, trading routes and production. This impact is amplified in places where extreme poverty is already pervasive, infrastructure already poor, and extreme weather and natural hazards already creating stress. As such, the intersection of crises creates urgent human need, and is known as a complex emergency. While identification of complex emergencies invokes broad, cross-sectoral responses, it also makes such responses extremely difficult. The challenge of access that characterizes many humanitarian responses is intensified when conflict places humanitarian actors themselves at risk of injury and death. The core principles of humanitarian action are deeply challenged when humanitarians must balance the fundamental right of every person to humanitarian assistance with the need to engage with conflict actors to secure access to the people in greatest need.

This volume looks beyond the pandemic that characterizes the time of writing, to imagine the security landscape that will face us in decades to come. This chapter centers on humanitarianism, which is an area actively engaged with the “inextricably linked” experiences of poverty and crisis, where the intersection of state fragility and poverty magnifies humanitarian crises and disasters. It is also a field in which the COVID-19 pandemic is both a crisis and an amplifier of other crises—and one in which the disproportionate impact of disease on poor nations and people will see significantly increased challenges for a very long time to come. This chapter therefore argues that the lasting impact of the pandemic will be increasing inequality that creates new crises and exacerbates existing ones. In this light, COVID-19's impact on fragility, stability, and poverty will be central to humanitarian practice long after offices and schools reopen and transport and travel resume.

Importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic has not encountered a well-structured and well-financed system serving a minority hit by devastating, life-threatening crises. Rather, humanitarian action was already severely underfunded, and humanitarian crises affect millions of people each year—235 million in 2020—in ways that disproportionally impact those already suffering.