This weekend marks World Humanitarian Day, a celebration and a commemoration of humanitarian aid workers around the world. It’s a time to mark the incredible impact our colleagues have in supporting people living in some of the most fragile places on earth. Sadly, it is also time to remember those who have lost their lives in seeking to save and improve those of others.

But as we reflect on each of those personal sacrifices, we must also recognise that global humanitarian need is at an all-time high. The main UN coordination body that monitors disasters, OCHA, estimated last month that 363 million people are in need of ‘urgent’ humanitarian assistance, another huge leap on what was already a record total last year.

At the same time, the UN has warned that funding to respond to this need has barely passed a quarter of the level required. This yawning shortfall means people are left to endure often appalling circumstances without the help they so badly need.

We see what this means for those around the world in our news bulletins, currently filled with images of the growing impact and destruction caused by more frequent and more extreme weather – heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts. Scientists are increasingly linking these directly to an accelerating climate crisis that was created by the failure of rich countries – like the UK – to reduce emissions fast enough, compounded by a lack of investment to build the resilience of climate-vulnerable communities before disasters strike.

You could be excused for finding this all a bit overwhelming but, amidst the gloom, there are grounds for optimism and pride. As eight leading humanitarian aid organisations in Scotland, we collectively advise the Scottish Government as an expert panel on how to allocate its relatively small-scale, but vital humanitarian spending. In the past two years alone, more than £8 million of funding has been committed.

And as well as responding to high-profile crises like the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the devastating floods in Pakistan and the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Scottish Government’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund has variously supported humanitarian relief in parts of the world which rarely capture our attention.

In the past two years alone, it has funded humanitarian responses to a range of ‘hidden crises’ – those relegated down the news agenda and all too easily forgotten – from the current crisis flowing from the conflict in Sudan to that in Burkina Faso. These contributions, alongside tens of thousands of individual donations to our organisations from across Scotland, have not only saved lives but are giving many people a lifeline back from the brink to slowly recover and rebuild for the future.

Right now, in the Horn of Africa – Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and parts of Kenya – millions of children are acutely malnourished, and millions more don’t get the food they need to grow and live a normal life. The tightening grip of the climate emergency in this region has led to five successive failed harvests for people entirely reliant on crops and livestock for their food and livelihoods. Long standing regional and ethnic or tribal conflicts are only likely to intensify in these circumstances.

However, with the funds donated here, our teams – working with partners and experts within the impacted countries – have provided thousands of families with the basics of food, water, medicines and nutritional supplements whilst also helping farmers to grow more drought resistant crops. As we continue to adapt the way we respond, we increasingly provide cash or vouchers directly to the most vulnerable families so they are given the dignity of deciding on their most urgent priorities.

None of this would be possible without the continued generosity of people from across Scotland, including many readers of this paper. At a time when rising living costs are fuelling hardship for many of us here, we should celebrate this compassion, this collective display of global solidarity. So today, we say ‘thank you’ for your support. Together, Scotland will not look away from those in crisis.

Frances Guy is chair of the Scottish Government’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund Expert Panel