GENEVA — The International Organization for Migration’s latest review of crisis operations arrives as the global humanitarian system confronts a difficult reality: displacement remains exceptionally high, crises are becoming more prolonged and interconnected, and funding is tightening.
IOM’s Operating in Crisis 2025 report examines the agency’s work across conflict, disaster and displacement settings during a year marked by major emergencies from Sudan and Ukraine to Haiti, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Its release is especially timely in 2026.
IOM says 239 million people currently require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection worldwide, while its 2026 crisis response plans target 23.6 million people and require about $2.5 billion. The agency says those plans have been deliberately prioritized to direct scarce resources toward the most urgent needs.
Displacement Remains Exceptionally High
The report lands against a backdrop of sustained global displacement.
UNHCR reported in June that more than 117 million people remained forcibly displaced globally in mid-2025, even after the total fell for the first time in roughly a decade.
By the end of 2025, there were 41.6 million refugees globally and approximately 68.7 million people internally displaced by conflict and violence.
Some of the decline reflected large-scale returns to countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But UNHCR cautioned that many people returned to areas where insecurity and limited access to basic services persist.
That distinction reinforces one of the central lessons emerging from IOM’s crisis operations: returning home does not necessarily mean displacement has been sustainably resolved.
Humanitarian Response Is Moving Beyond Emergency Relief
IOM’s report also reflects a broader shift in the humanitarian system.
Food, shelter, health care and protection remain essential, but prolonged displacement increasingly requires investment in livelihoods, infrastructure, local governance, disaster preparedness and community resilience.
Ukraine offers one example. IOM’s 2026 response plan seeks $262 million to reach approximately 900,000 people, while also supporting recovery and durable solutions for displaced populations.
In Yemen, the agency is similarly combining life-saving assistance with efforts to reduce aid dependency, strengthen self-sufficiency and improve resilience to climate and disaster risks.
For governments, that shift matters because prolonged displacement places sustained pressure on housing, infrastructure, labor markets, schools, health systems and public finances.
Conflict and Climate Risks Are Converging
The report also highlights how difficult it has become to separate conflict response from climate and disaster resilience.
In Mozambique, humanitarian needs are shaped by both conflict-related displacement and repeated cyclones and flooding. Myanmar entered 2025 already facing severe instability before a major earthquake in March created another layer of humanitarian need.
These overlapping crises expose a broader policy problem: humanitarian aid, development finance and climate adaptation are still often funded through separate systems, even when they are responding to different dimensions of the same emergency.
Local Capacity Is Becoming More Important
Another theme running through IOM’s operating model is localization — moving more responsibility and resources toward national and community organizations.
That approach is becoming even more important as international humanitarian budgets contract.
Local organizations often retain access and community trust in places where international actors face restrictions, and they remain long after emergency operations scale down.
IOM had already moved significantly in this direction before 2025. Its previous Operating in Crisis report showed that in 2024 it provided more than $160 million directly to local and national actors and maintained more than 800 partnerships with such organizations.
The Funding Squeeze Is Reshaping Humanitarian Response
The pressure is now visible across the wider UN system.
UNHCR reported that available resources fell by $1.25 billion to $3.93 billion in 2025, covering just 37% of assessed needs, compared with 48% in 2024.
The agency said it was effectively responding to current displacement levels with financial resources comparable to those available in 2016, when the population requiring assistance was less than half as large.
IOM is adapting to the same environment. Its 2026 crisis-response framework explicitly references the UN’s Humanitarian Reset and broader UN80 reform efforts, with greater emphasis on prioritization, efficiency and high-impact interventions.
A Humanitarian Model Under Pressure to Evolve
Taken together, IOM’s 2025 experience and the funding realities of 2026 point toward a structural shift in crisis response.
The challenge is no longer only how quickly humanitarian agencies can mobilize after conflict or disaster. It is increasingly how governments, UN agencies, development institutions and local organizations can prevent repeated emergencies from creating long-term dependency.
That means linking immediate relief with resilient infrastructure, livelihoods, climate adaptation, stronger institutions and durable solutions for displaced populations.
The funding squeeze makes that transition harder. It may also make it unavoidable.
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