MADRID, December 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
International headlines in 2025 were dominated by the expansion of conflicts, which reached levels not seen since the Second World War, and by natural disasters that claimed thousands of lives and worsened humanitarian crises in several countries already hit by war and climate change.
However, various NGOs and UN agencies are also reporting other relevant developments that allow us to view the situation with more optimism, while warning of the impact of reductions in the delivery of funds and their possible repercussion on the progress achieved in various areas.
The spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Spain, Paula Barrachina, says that “return movements increased significantly in 2025”. “In the first six months of the year, returns of refugees and internally displaced people tripled compared to the first half of 2024, reaching 6.9 million, one of the highest levels on record,” the report said.
“Returns to and within the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Burma and Ukraine accounted for 95 percent of all return movements during this period,” he explains, while asserting that “one of the most promising developments for 2025 has been the increase in voluntary returns to Syria,” where “the fall of the Al Assad regime has opened up a window for peace and stability.
Thus, Action Against Hunger underlines that “in a year marked by emergencies and challenges, it has been demonstrated that international cooperation and social innovation continue to be engines of hope”, giving as an example the work of its team in a “difficult” environment to be able to serve 1.5 million people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In Gaza, where famine was declared this year in several regions, more than a hundred Action Against Hunger workers provided water, food, nutritional and psychosocial support to thousands of families. “Our work shows that even in the most critical scenarios, it is possible to offer hope and dignity,” says the NGO.
View of a street in Djibouti, capital of Djibouti – Europa Press/Contact/Wang Guansen
From Ayuda en Acción, Giulia Tieni, head of the Humanitarian Action Unit, emphasizes that “despite the challenges that the whole world faces in terms of food, several countries show that it is possible to make progress in the fight against hunger in complex contexts or in protracted humanitarian crises”.
The Global Hunger Index shows that Ethiopia “succeeded in increasing the calorie intake of the most vulnerable households, increasing their incomes and building environmental resilience,” while Sierra Leone “reduced seasonal food insecurity and improved school nutrition while strengthening its rice self-sufficiency through new agricultural technologies.”
Additionally, Angola “continues to strengthen vaccination and rural infrastructure after years of conflict,” while Bangladesh “has moved from severe to moderate hunger since 2000 and has significantly reduced child malnutrition.” Added to this progress is Nepal, which “continues to expand access to food and strengthen nutritional health”.
In this context, Amnesty International highlights that “activism and collective struggle continue to open cracks of hope”, using as an example the “historic” advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which “clearly” indicate that “the full enjoyment of human rights cannot be guaranteed without protecting the climate system and other parts of the environment”.
Likewise, he welcomes the decision of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Mullah Hebatullah Ajundzada, for gender-based persecution against women, girls and LGBTI people in Afghanistan, which represents a “step towards justice”.
The NGO also welcomes the arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte following the ICC’s arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity during his “war on drugs”, as well as the release of prominent activists in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and China.
For its part, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is highlighting the “innovative strategy” to fight malaria in 20 health centers in Burundi – one of the countries with the highest incidence of malaria – with a pilot program in which some 18,000 children are participating and which is making visible progress.
“To provide a more sustainable response, we proposed a pilot approach to the authorities: protecting all children through vaccination against malaria, long-term preventive treatment and the delivery of insecticide-treated mosquito nets,” explains Zakari Moluh, MSF project coordinator in Cibitoke.
MSF highlights the program launched by the NGO to treat fistula patients in Baidoa, Somalia, which “offers free and comprehensive fistula repair as part of a sustained and comprehensive service, treatment of severe perineal tears, pre- and post-operative monitoring, nutritional support and comprehensive psychosocial support”.
In this sense, Save the Children highlights that Somali children benefit from “greater legal protections and greater rights”, including access to health and education, after Parliament ratified the only African regional charter on the rights of the child.
The organization recalls Bolivia’s decision to ban child marriage, becoming the 14th Latin American country to take this step. Before the law was passed, more than one in five girls were forced into union before the age of 18, and about three percent were married before the age of 15.
For his part, Nazareth Mateos, gender specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Spain, highlights the measure taken by Djibouti to reform its Constitution in order to prohibit female genital mutilation. “This amendment strengthens the protection of physical integrity and human dignity and consolidates the country’s commitment to eradicating this practice through laws, education and community support,” the text states.
More than 230 million girls and women, 144 million of whom live in Africa, have suffered from this practice, which causes serious physical, psychological and social harm. That’s why UNICEF works with governments, local organizations, community leaders and other allies to promote social and cultural changes that discourage it.
On another note, World Vision welcomes progress in the fight against deforestation, included in the latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which highlights a reduction in the rate of destruction of tree cover since the turn of the century, with a decrease in deforestation to 10.9 million hectares per year between 2015 and 2025, compared to 17.6 million between 1990 and 2000.
“Reforesting degraded lands to provide livelihoods to the most vulnerable communities has been a goal for decades,” says Eloisa Molina, communications director at World Vision, who says the way to solve the problem is by promoting a method of reforestation called farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR).
Molina explains that this method “consists of the selection and management of trees and shrubs that grow from living stumps, roots and dormant seeds.” “This method is cheap and scalable and has multiple advantages: increased food production, firewood and construction wood, wild foods and traditional medicines,” he believes.
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