Social Pulse 2022 – a report on the biggest humanitarian needs in Norway
December 19, 2022
In the report “Humanitarian needs in Norway. Status 2022”, which the Norwegian Red Cross (NorCross) commissioned from Statistics Norway, Hammersland and Barstad (2022) thoroughly document how suffering and distress exists in Norway. Whilst this group is not sizeable when measured in proportion to the Norwegian population, it is considerable in absolute terms. The form and level of humanitarian need within Norway has also been impacted by the COVID pandemic which Hammersland and Barstad’s discuss in their report.
Based on a thorough review of available statistics and welfare research, Hammersland and Barstad (2022) conclude that some groups in the Norwegian society are at higher risk of having one or more humanitarian needs. They identify the ten most vulnerable groups within Norway which are as follows:
· Children who are subjected to mistreatment, violence, bullying and neglect.
· People who take narcotics intravenously or have other serious drug addictions
· Prisoners
· People with serious psychological illness
· Families with children living in poverty
· People with both health problems and low economic resources
· Social assistance and welfare receivers
· Elderly with dementia living in a care home or receiving home services
· Asylum seekers and irregular migrants
· Sexual orientation and gender identity minorities
The NorCross report “Social Pulse 2022 – a report on the biggest humanitarian needs in Norway” contains a summary of these ten vulnerable groups along with a brief explanation of how they were identified and the driving factors causing humanitarian need in Norway. The overlaps between these vulnerable groups are visualized in the report. In addition the report outlines how NorCross’ activities meet the needs of some of these vulnerable groups and finally presents recommendations to decision-makers and civil society on how these humanitarian needs can be addressed.