COVID-19 AND DROP IN GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN AID MAKE PERFECT STORM FOR WORLD’S MOST VULNERABLE: The Covid-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to the humanitarian system in both scale and complexity, new research shows. Development Initiatives’ 2020 Global Humanitarian Assistance report reveals that in 2019 over one billion people were living in countries affected by long-term humanitarian crises such as conflict, displacement and natural disasters. In the same period international UN appeals hit a record high but international humanitarian funding dropped by $1.6 billion. Covid-19 is compounding these existing humanitarian challenges: 34 of the 63 countries that require humanitarian assistance to deal with the pandemic are in long-term humanitarian crisis. Despite these growing humanitarian needs, the harsh reality is that with the global economy under significant strain and donor governments facing increasing domestic costs, global aid is projected to decline further and faster.