The European Commission announced its World-Wide Decision on Humanitarian Aid for the allocation of 640€ million funding during 2012. The plan foresees interventions in 36 countries or regions. In particular, the largest operation in budgetary terms is sub-Saharan Africa, for which 52% of Commission's humanitarian funding is reserved.

The Commission presented its plan for the allocation of the humanitarian aid funding during 2012. €640 million will be allocated thanks to the World-Wide Decision on Humanitarian Aid in 36 countries or regions. The largest operation in budgetary terms is sub-Saharan Africa, for which 52% of Commission's humanitarian funding is reserved. Actually, based on the assessment of needs of the most vulnerable populations in the world the five largest humanitarian operations will be in Sudan (North and South) (€87 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (€44 million), the occupied Palestinian territory (€40 million), the Sahel (€45 million), and the Horn of Africa (€102 million).

In addition, some 15% of the budget is dedicated to forgotten crises – areas which get little media attention and where the Commission is often the only major donor. In 2012 these include the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and the victims of internal armed conflict in the Central African Republic.

Based on the annual Global Needs Assessment (GNA), the World-Wide Decision on Humanitarian Aid is allocated. The European Commission categorises 139 developing countries in terms of their vulnerability and the recent occurrence of a crisis. In 2011, using the GNA methodology, the Commission identified 52 countries currently experiencing at least one humanitarian crisis. Out of these, 23 countries emerged as "extremely vulnerable", 19 of which are found in Sub-Saharan Africa.