Under the slogan "Hear our Voices" the United Nations yesterday launched its annual humanitarian appeal on behalf of 45 million of the world's most vulnerable people in 21 crisis areas which are often forgotten in global political and media agendas.
Seventeen of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, the remainder in North Korea, Tajikistan, Chechnya and the occupied Palestinian territories (Afghanistan and Iraq are not included in this appeal, being catered for this year by other ones).
The appeal for $5 billion is made to governments to meet basic needs of the hungry and the sick and to protect those displaced by brutal conflicts, primarily children, elderly people and women.
It is one of the most merited, both in terms of the funds' proven effectiveness and the publicity given to these humanitarian and political-military catastrophes. The initiative was taken nine years ago by the UN General Assembly and brings aid agencies together with a common action plan. It plays an important role in fostering closer co-operation between agencies and donors.
The UN under-secretary of humanitarian affairs, Mr Jan Eglund, has highlighted how the human suffering in north Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo is much worse than in Iraq and rarely reported in international media. Together with Sudan, they are the worst crises experienced by these organisations this year.
In north Uganda some 1.3 million people have been displaced following a campaign by the Lord's Resistance Army, while millions may have died in the Congo's conflict, which the UN is struggling to resolve.
Just to glance through details from some of the other 21 crisis areas is to encounter horrifying details of how rapidly unresolved conflicts can affect vulnerable populations - often in countries that are quite capable of sustaining functioning societies if governed effectively.
In Zimbabwe some 5.5 million people are in need of food aid after the fifth year of economic deterioration; an estimated 34 per cent of those in the 15-40 age group are affected by HIV/AIDS.
In the occupied Palestinian areas poverty has increased threefold during the fourth year of the current intifada and border closure, with 60 per cent of the population below the poverty line and 2.5 million living on less that two dollars a day.
As the report says, they are now extremely vulnerable since coping mechanisms such as credit have collapsed and personal assets have been sold.
This well argued appeal deserves widespread support.