The United Nations said on Monday that it was drastically downscaling its global humanitarian aid plans due to the “deepest financing cuts ever”.
The UN Humanitarian Agency said in a statement that it sought $ 29 billion in funding compared to $ 44 billion requested in December in a “hyper-priority” appeal.
Under President Donald Trump, who took over the office in January, the US – the world’s top donor – vigorously his foreign aid, causing destruction in the humanitarian auxiliary sector across the globe.
Other donor countries have cut down their contributions in the light of an uncertain financial view.
“Brutal financing cuts leave us with brutal elections,” Tom Fletcher, the leader of the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement.
“Everything we ask for is 1% of what you chose to spend last year on war. But this is not just an appeal for money – it is an invitation to global responsibility, for human solidarity, for a commitment to end the suffering.”
By 2025 almost halfway through, the UN has only received $ 5.6 billion out of the $ 44 billion, only 13%as it had requested while facing undulating crises in Sudan, the Middle East, the Democratic Republic Congo and Myanmar, among others.
“We have been forced into a triage of human survival,” Fletcher said. “The math is cruel and the consequences are heartbreaking. For many people, they don’t get the support they need, but we will save as many lives as we can with the resources we get.”
According to the new guidelines, OCHA AID will be fixed so that it can “reach the people and places that face the most urgent needs” and support will be corrected “on the planning already done for 2025 … This will ensure that limited resources are corrected where they can do the most good – as soon as possible,” the statement states.
