An estimated 300 million people worldwide live in countries affected by armed conflict. When violence and political instability disrupt societies and displace populations, they usually destroy public health services, clean water supplies, sanitation and stable living conditions. As a result, death and disease skyrocket.

• Conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken 5.4 million lives since 1998.

The International Rescue Committee, a world leader in health in emergencies and complex situations, works to rapidly reduce illness and death rates to normal levels and, when conflict subsides, to rebuild health systems.

• IRC health programmes assist approximately 13 million people in 25 countries worldwide.

We work in refugee camps, disaster areas, refugee host countries and societies recovering from war or experiencing prolonged crisis or conflict, addressing crucial needs including child survival, reproductive health and environmental health (such as water and sanitation).

Child Survival

Every year, 11 million children under the age of five die unnecessarily, overwhelmingly due to preventable and treatable infectious diseases.

• In Sierra Leone, one in four children dies before they reach their fifth birthday, the highest rate of infant mortality in the world.

In areas affected by war and conflict, the task of improving the health and nutrition of vulnerable children is even more challenging.

• In Rwanda, a child survival programme focusing on nutrition, malaria control and safe motherhood has helped to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition from 40% to 17% in five years and helped reduce the number of babies born underweight by as much as 70%.

Reproductive Health

Women and girls affected by complex emergencies are subject to some of the greatest health inequities in the world. In addition to a lack of primary healthcare, the absence of specialised reproductive health services is a leading cause of death and disease among women and girls who are displaced by armed conflict.

The IRC established its first reproductive health programme in 1992 with Liberian refugee women in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Our programmes focus on safe motherhood, family planning, control of sexually-transmitted infections including HIV, and prevention and response to gender-based violence.

• In Pakistan, where the IRC works with Afghan refugees, the maternal mortality ratio among those we work with is at 102 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, significantly lower than the United Nations’ estimates of 1,900 for Afghanistan and 500 in Pakistan.
• The IRC’s programmes in Thailand and Kenya are among the first to use anti-retroviral drugs for the treatment of AIDS in humanitarian settings.

Environmental Health

In emergencies, complex situations and during the mass movement of people, disease can easily spread because of basic sanitary, water supply and hygiene challenges.

The IRC works to reduce death and disease caused by poor sanitation, inadequate water supply, unsafe hygiene practices and vector-borne diseases such as malaria.

• Since 2001, the IRC has been overseeing sanitation activities at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, one of the world’s largest camps and home to some 90,000 refugees. Following the IRC taking on these responsibilities, the ratio of people to latrines fell from 50 to one to 13 to one and the prevalence of diarrhoea in the camp dropped by 60%.