Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was already being regarded as the year of the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Millions of people are now in danger of losing their livelihoods and of falling into poverty. The Global Humanitarian Response Plan COVID-19 (GHRP) provides an overview of the additional humanitarian requirements of all UN agencies in the context of the pandemic. Since the publication of its first edition at the end of March that asked for $2 billion for 54 countries, the requirements were strongly revised upwards within a couple of weeks. Currently, the total requirements for a total of 63 countries stand at $10.31 billion until the end of the year. So far (as of August 18) only $ 2.19 billion have been received. Experts warn that development gains of several decades are at stake if not more than the 20% that have been made available until now are provided soon. So far the US is the largest donor (with more than 100 times the amount provided by China), followed by Japan and Germany.
