SBS World News Radio: Top 10 most under-reported humanitarian crises revealed
Aid organisation CARE International says millions of people suffered in 2016 from ongoing conflicts and natural disasters that few members of the public were aware of.
The aid group says millions are struggling to survive in a world that knows little about these under-reported humanitarian crises.
Using a media monitoring service, aid organisation CARE analysed natural disasters and conflicts that received little media attention in 2016.
More than 250,000 global online sources were monitored in English, French and German.
Humanitarian and Emergency Response Manager, Stefan Knollmayer, hopes their latest report, Suffering in Silence will bring attention to crises that are overlooked.
"It's tremendously frustrating as an aid worker. I've worked in a number of these places, most recently in Papua New Guinea. And you see a lot of the suffering but you are unable to access some of the funding or resources you need to assist them as well as you would like."
CARE identified 10 nations in its report struggling with food shortages, conflicts and natural disasters.
Among them - food crises in Eritrea, Madagascar, North Korea and Papua New Guinea.
The report also notes conflicts in Burundi, Lake Chad Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan and last year's monsoon floods in Bangladesh.
Stefan Knollmayer says it can be a struggle to combat "compassion fatigue" in a time of increasing global turmoil.
"We're seeing natural disasters such as cyclones impacting and affecting in ever greater intensity, we're seeing significant conflict in large parts of the world leading to a large amount of displacement. So it is a bit overwhelming in terms of the magnitude of what we're dealing with. But that in no way diminishes the suffering of a lot of these places where we're perhaps not hearing as much (from)."
Anthea Spinks is Associate Director with Program Partnerships at Oxfam Australia.
The agency says along with the areas mentioned by the CARE report, it also cites the emerging humanitarian crisis in Yemen as an area of concern.
Ms Spinks welcomes the Care International report, saying increasing awareness for under-reported crises is crucial in getting further public and government support.
"These crises are ongoing. There are millions of people who are affected. Displacement is a big impact of that, so basically getting lifesaving aid into communities is a struggle is hard, and there is a multitude of challenges we face and opportunities to engage with the Australian public are really critical to that."
The Care International report puts forward a six step approach to improve the provision of aid to affected people.
The group suggests world leaders and bodies such as the UN find new ways of resolving conflicts and make funding decisions based on need rather than political interests or pressure.
The group also says when women are directly involved in aid operations - action is often more efficient and effective.
