Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance provided to people who need help, usually short-term until long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. It is provided for humanitarian purposes and includes natural disasters and human-made disasters. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying socioeconomic factors that may have led to a crisis or emergency.
Humanitarian aid can come from either local or international communities. The United Nations is relied upon by the international community to coordinate humanitarian relief of emergencies due to natural and man-made disasters. The United States is the largest single provider of humanitarian assistance worldwide, with a total of nearly $13 billion in fiscal year 2021. The U.S. humanitarian assistance aims to save lives and alleviate suffering by ensuring that vulnerable and crisis-affected individuals receive assistance and protection. The U.S. funding provides life-saving assistance to tens of millions of displaced and crisis-affected people, including refugees, worldwide. The U.S. assistance provides urgent, life-saving support, including food, shelter, safe drinking water, improved sanitation and hygiene, emergency healthcare services, child protection programs, and education, among other activities.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provides humanitarian assistance to save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the impact of disasters by helping people in need become more resilient to humanitarian crises. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) states that humanitarian action saves lives, alleviates suffering, and maintains human dignity following conflict, shocks, and natural disasters.
