The IRC's 2021 Emergency Watchlist reveals that the world is facing both unprecedented humanitarian emergencies as well as a political crisis of inaction and global retreat from humanitarian obligations.

2021 marks a decade of conflict in Syria. Despite its protracted nature the crisis continues to reach new lows as conflict, displacement and needs grow, while humanitarians’ crossborder access to people in need is increasingly constrained.

Nigeria’s ranking among the top ten on Watchlist is primarily due to the crisis in the northeast, where humanitarian needs are only growing and deepening after ten years of conflict.

COVID-19 – and the restrictions and wider humanitarian crises it is creating – are deepening needs inside Venezuela, driving new humanitarian, political and economic crises for the country, and compounding one of the largest external displacements in the world.