Inform 2024 Report: Shared evidence to manage crises and disasters

INFORM is a multi-stakeholder forum for developing shared quantitative analyzes relevant to humanitarian crises and disasters. The 2024 report includes the results of the risk, severity, and climate change indices. The INFORM Severity Index summarizes quantitative information on the severity of humanitarian crises, aggregating data from public sources such as UN agencies and governments. It aims to monitor trends in crisis severity, contribute to decisions on resource allocation, and promote a shared and objective understanding of crisis severity. The results of the Severity Index, corresponding to October 2023, show that countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Central African Republic face crises of very high severity, while others such as Brazil and Chile have crises of medium severity. In addition, the INFORM Climate Change Index is presented, a new product that incorporates climate and socioeconomic projections to analyze how risk will change due to climate change. Scenarios such as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) are used to project future risks and response capacity. Over the past ten years, there has been a general increase in the risk of humanitarian crises globally. Conflict, displacement and shocks such as the COVID-19 crisis have been important drivers of increased crisis risk. Africa remains the region most at risk, while Asia has seen a decrease in risk due to improvements in response capacity and infrastructure. Average annual exposure to sudden-onset natural hazards, such as river floods and cyclones, has increased by 8.6% since 2014, with climate-related risks responsible for 95% of the absolute increase in exposure over the last decade.