What is it?
Health is a core sector of humanitarian assistance and a reliable measurement of its impact.
During humanitarian crises, the capacity of the health system and access to services may be reduced, and the growing morbidity and mortality risks may result in exacerbated health needs requiring external assistance. This is notably to address:
- the direct health impacts of violence (e.g. injuries, gender-based violence, trauma)
- indirect health impacts (e.g. increased risk of epidemic outbreaks, discontinuation of treatments, mental health needs)
The European Commission aims to provide high-quality humanitarian health assistance to the most vulnerable in fragile contexts by building as much as possible on pre-existing facilities, programmes, and systems. In order to strengthen healthcare systems and build local capacity by providing where necessary:
- emergency medical assistance
- epidemic prevention
- preparedness and response
- reproductive, maternal and newborn healthcare
- mental health and psychosocial support
The largest EU-funded humanitarian health funding interventions in 2025 were in:
Syria, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan.
EU humanitarian funding:
To support humanitarian health programmes worldwide, the European Commission provides funding:
Why is this important?
Access to healthcare is a key component of the fundamental human right to health, yet around half of the world’s population (4.6 billion) still lack access to essential healthcare (WHO).
Forced displacement
Record levels of global displacement and food insecurity, the increasing impact of climate change and extreme natural hazards, violence and conflict worldwide, and recurrent epidemic outbreaks contribute to increased health needs, with the most vulnerable populations living in fragile settings, particularly women and children, disproportionately affected.
At the same time, unprecedented cuts to humanitarian assistance globally are causing serious disruptions to health systems, preventing the delivery of life-saving medicine, and leading to the loss of critical health personnel and facilities closing. As a result of the cuts, an estimated minimum of 9.4 million additional deaths could occur by 2030 (UN; The Lancet).
The most frequent medical needs arise from:
- acute respiratory diseases
- waterborne diseases and diarrhoea
- complications during pregnancy and delivery, and sexually transmitted infections
- injuries (including from sexual and gender-based violence)
- malnutrition-related cases
- vector-borne diseases, notably malaria and dengue fever
- other vaccine-preventable communicable diseases
- mental health conditions
Attacks on medical care aggravate the problem: reaching record levels in 2025, representing a severe violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) and resulting in the destruction of facilities and vehicles, the disruption in service provision, and a failure to protecting patients and personnel.
Subsectors of EU’s health aid
The EU allocated €212 million to MHPSS in 2020-2025. MHPSS is increasingly needed to build community resilience and support crisis-affected individuals cope with high distress and trauma, including victims of GBV. A people-centred, integrated approach is followed, encompassing health, protection, education, among others. In addition, advocacy efforts to the international community are ongoing for the provision of high-quality services, the implementation of activities along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, and more research for evidence-based interventions.
The EU allocated €81 million for activities related to epidemic preparedness, prevention, and response globally in 2020-2025. This complements the efforts implemented via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the rescEU and the ReliefEU, to address COVID-19, cholera, Ebola, Marburg, mpox, diphtheria, measles, yellow fever and others. In addition, immunisation programmes complementing national campaigns try to address the current under-immunisation rates, affecting 67 million children globally, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU allocated €390 million to primary care in 2020-2025. In emergency situations, primary care is key for essential routine health services, case identification and management, outbreak prevention and response, and disease surveillance. Working with engaged communities and wider multisectoral action, a primary healthcare approach identifies protection cases, develops resilience, and can advance the global aim of achieving universal health coverage and health security.
The EU allocated €248 million to reproductive, maternal and newborn healthcare in 2020-2025, including the medical response to GBV. The provision of sexual and reproductive health services, including reproductive health kits, is an essential component of any primary healthcare package in humanitarian crises. In addition, preventing and responding to gender-based violence is a life-saving priority for the EU. Gender-based violence affects the health and safety of individuals, families, and communities, and predominantly affects women and girls, although GBV against men and boys is also a raising concern.
The EU allocated €551 million to strengthen the healthcare system, notably through health infrastructure rehabilitation, capacity-building and supplies in 2020-2025. This includes immediate post-attack interventions, as well as specialised training courses for healthcare workers, with the aim of creating a sustainable, long-term capacity for early intervention in the case of future sudden emergencies, or in routine healthcare provision.
How are we helping?
The European Commission provides around €352 million annually to support humanitarian health programmes worldwide.
The EU’s humanitarian health funding is governed by its policy guidelines for health response in humanitarian settings, which help ensure coherence between the departments of the European Commission, EU Member States, other donors, stakeholders and partners providing health assistance in the field.
To mobilise medical and public health teams and equipment for rapid response to emergencies, the European Commission and countries joining the EU Civil Protection Mechanism launched the European medical corps. Countries can offer specialised health units to support populations hit by disasters inside or outside the EU.
ReliefEU
In addition, reliefEU provides a set of operational tools designed to fill gaps in the humanitarian response to sudden-onset natural hazards and human-induced disasters. This includes the deployment of expertise, mainly in the health and logistical sectors, as well as funding for swift emergency response, including epidemic outbreak response.
rescEU
At European level, medical capacities (staff and resources) are developed and deployed as part of rescEU. This is the European reserve of capacities to protect citizens from disasters and manage emerging risks, such as medical emergencies and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents.
Currently, RescEU offers aerial medical evacuation for highly infectious disease patients and disaster victims (MEDEVAC), emergency medical teams and a stockpiling reserve of medical equipment and therapeutics.
Threat detection and health emergency preparedness
Collaboration is also ongoing with the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) and the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) to coordinate the support of threat detection and health emergency preparedness and response in the area of medical countermeasures, including the possible deployment of experts to emergency areas.
This page was last updated on 30 March 2026