Humanitarian emergencies result from many kinds of situations—from environmental disasters like drought or earthquakes to political conflicts that drive people from their homes. These crises can build slowly over time or strike suddenly and unexpectedly.
Our emergency response efforts prioritize saving lives in the short term, while working with communities to help them rebuild when immediate threats have passed. In all things, we keep girls and boys at the centre of our plans, concentrating on their physical and emotional safety and wellbeing—and this focus on children often sets us apart.
World Vision uses four categories as we assess emergencies and plan our responses.
- Crisis Response - CATEGORY III are the most severe crises, where societies are unable to respond and recover without large scale external assistance.
- Crisis Response - CATEGORY II are significant humanitarian crises that impact large numbers of people in societies that can respond and recover with limited external assistance.
- Crisis Response - CATEGORY I are community level or subnational crises with localized impacts, where the community is able to respond and recover, with some assistance.
- Chronic Emergencies & Fragile Contexts - SUSTAINED HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES are emergency responses that have been running for 24 months, and are projected to continue for at least another year.