The suffering caused to tens of thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana by tropical storm Harvey is not to be underestimated. But in terms of scale and human cost, it pales in comparison with many worldwide disasters – both recent and ongoing, natural and manmade – that have received less international attention.

The extreme flooding that hit India, Nepal and Bangladesh (and now Pakistan) is the latest catastrophic event in a year of unprecedented disasters. It has affected an estimated 40 million people and claimed about 1,200 lives so far, according to the most recent reports. And that is not the half of it.

Floods claim more than 800 lives across India, Nepal and Bangladesh Read more

A record 141.1 million people in 37 countries are currently in need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), an increase of 12.5 million on last year’s total. An estimated $23.5bn is needed this year to fund assistance efforts, but so far only $6.2bn – 26% of that total – has been raised. Introducing Ocha’s mid-year report, Stephen O’Brien, the UN’s senior aid official, warned humanitarian needs across the globe had reached an unprecedented level in 2017. Some of the crises are long-standing, but many have erupted since January.

“This year has been marked by multiple disasters amid the protracted crises that generate most humanitarian needs,” wrote O’Brien. “As many as 20 million people are at risk of famine across north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

“Five flash appeals have been launched in 2017 to respond to devastation caused by the drought in Kenya, by tropical cyclones Enawo in Madagascar and Dineo in Mozambique, and by flooding in Peru.”

Armed conflicts are aggravating the overall situation, added O’Brien, pointing to rising insecurity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere. “The absence of political solutions to conflict in South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and ongoing military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, exposes civilians to intense suffering.”

In Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, countries grappling with famine and chronic hunger, the funding shortfall is staggering. Nigeria has received only 32% of the cash it needs for problems in the north-east of the country, while Yemen – which is also suffering a severe cholera outbreak, a Saudi bombing campaign and protracted unrest – and Somalia, beset by armed conflict, have fared little better.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of the Red Cross help people register at George Brown Convention Centre, which has been opened as a shelter in Houston, Texas. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Images

Countries with problems that frequently make the news often receive stronger support than those that get less attention. A case in point is little-noticed Senegal, which has received only $1.7m, or 10.7%, of this year’s modest $16m humanitarian response funding plan. Yet international attention, or the lack of it, is not always a factor.

The Syrian civil war, raging since 2011, has received global media coverage and is the subject of high-profile peace mediation efforts. But donor fatigue appears to have set in. The latest UN figures suggest 13.5 million people are in need. Of $3.4bn in required funding, $728m, or 21%, has been forthcoming in 2017. Competition for attention and resources is intensifying. Oxfam recently pointed out that, while conflict in the DRC has forced nearly 1 million people to flee their homes in the first six months of 2017 – “more than the combined total of Nigeria and South Sudan” – little international aid or attention has been forthcoming.

UN figures support the disturbing idea of a hierarchy of suffering. Spending on Syrian people who have fled their homes or are refugees stands at $88 a head, despite the millions affected. In Afghanistan, where 9.3 million people are in need, the per capita aid figure is $19, less than a quarter of the Syrian spend. Compare that with Texas, where US federal assistance for several hundred thousand displaced people is eventually expected to run into billions of dollars.

Worldwide, 22 governments provide about 90% of all aid. The leading donors are the US, the European commission and the UK, followed by Germany and Japan. One reason why this year’s funding shortfall is so severe is the unprecedented level of demand. But another may be political pressure to cut foreign aid budgets in the west. In Britain, calls to slash overseas humanitarian assistance have been growing, while Donald Trump has proposed US aid budget cuts of up to $13.5bn. If approved, Trump’s plans would amount to a 32% reduction in US civilian foreign affairs spending at a moment of exceptional global need.