As the world faces another Ebola outbreak in a region with chronic violence and instability, and as infectious diseases such as the hantavirus command global attention, the International Rescue Committee is urging delegates gathering for the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA79) to make sustained investments into fragile and conflict-affected states. 

In fragile and conflict-affected settings, health systems have been blighted by climate crisis, conflict, extreme poverty and the ongoing impact of crippling funding cuts, the IRC said, leaving millions of people vulnerable to preventable death and disease at far greater rates than their peers in stable settings. 

The 20 fragile and conflict-affected countries on the IRC’s annual Emergency Watchlist account for 12% of the world’s population but nearly 90% of global humanitarian need. Children in these countries are three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than peers in stable countries; maternal mortality runs four to five times the global average; around half of the world’s 14 million never-vaccinated children live here; and global health financing has fallen by up to 40% since 2023 — with the communities least able to absorb cuts bearing the greatest share of them.

Dr. Mesfin Teklu Tessema, Senior Director of Health at the International Rescue Committee, said:

"The risks are growing and the resources are shrinking — that is the brutal arithmetic facing global health today. Yet within that crisis lies an opportunity: proven, cost-effective interventions that save lives locally and protect global health security. Immunizing a child in Ethiopia, treating malnutrition in South Sudan, preventing a maternal death in Burkina Faso — these are not acts of charity. They are the highest-return investments in global health available to us, and WHA79 must make the case for funding them.”