We must prepare for a "semi-dystopian future” was just one of the apocalyptic warnings from a recent survey of leading climate scientists, with the toll from heat waves, floods, and storms set to eclipse anything yet seen. Reading the news these days is certainly not for the faint hearted, and these dire warnings are all the more alarming when we consider the huge scale of suffering already caused by droughts, famines, conflicts, and the forced displacement of populations — dynamics that are often already aggravated by climate change.
In my home country of Pakistan a staggering near 8 million people were displaced in 2022 alone due to heavy rains and floods, with over 20 million requiring humanitarian assistance. As a senator there I witnessed firsthand the scale of suffering and the complexity of the recovery effort.
The United Nations’ projection for 2023 was that 339 million people would require humanitarian assistance, which equates to a more than 100% increase in needs compared with 2018. It seems unlikely that 2024 will see any reduction in the scale of need, given the horrors of conflict, displacement, and natural disasters that continue to unfold. And as night follows day, in any context where we see humanitarian need, be it precipitated by human or natural causes, we see outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and cholera.
About the author
Dr. Sania Nishtar
Dr. Sania Nishtar is the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. With over three decades of leadership at the national and global levels, Dr. Nishtar has built a reputation as a tireless advocate for health equity and an innovative thinker when it comes to solving complex challenges.
