The United States on Monday announced a $2 billion pledge for UN humanitarian aid as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to slash US foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies to “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities.
The money is a small fraction of what the US has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is a generous amount that will maintain the United States’ status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.
The funding will be channelled through a centralised mechanism run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), significantly expanding the agency’s role in deciding how humanitarian aid is allocated.
The $2 billion (€1.7bn) is only a sliver of traditional US humanitarian funding for UN-backed programmes, which has run as high as $17 billion (€14.4bn) annually in recent years, according to UN data.
US officials say only up to $10 billion (€8.48bn) of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States also pays billions in annual dues related to its UN membership.
Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease and harmed US soft power around the world.
A year of crisis in aid
The move caps a crisis year for many UN organizations like its refugee, migration and food aid agencies. The Trump administration has already cut billions in US foreign aid, prompting them to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional Western donors have reduced outlays, too.
The announced US pledge for aid programmes of the United Nations — the world’s top provider of humanitarian assistance and biggest recipient of US humanitarian aid money — takes shape in a preliminary deal with OCHA, run by Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat and government official.
Even as the US pulls back its aid, needs have ballooned across the world: Famine has been recorded this year in parts of conflict-ridden Sudan and Gaza, and floods, drought and natural disasters that many scientists attribute to climate change have taken many lives or driven thousands from their homes.
The cuts will have major implications for UN affiliates like the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme and refugee agency UNHCR. They have already received billions less from the US this year than under annual allocations from the previous Biden administration — or even during Trump’s first term.
Now, the idea is that Fletcher’s office — which last year set in motion a “humanitarian reset” to improve efficiency, accountability and effectiveness of money spent — will become a funnel for US and other aid money that can be then redirected to those agencies, rather than scattered US contributions to a variety of individual appeals for aid.
US seeks aid consolidation
The United States wants to see “more consolidated leadership authority” in UN aid delivery systems, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details before the announcement at the US diplomatic mission in Geneva.
Under the plan, Fletcher and his coordination office “are going to control the spigot” on how money is distributed to agencies, the official said.
“This humanitarian reset at the United Nations should deliver more aid with fewer tax dollars — providing more focused, results-driven assistance aligned with US foreign policy,” said US Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz.
US officials say the $2 billion (€1.7bn) is just a first outlay to help fund OCHA’s annual appeal for money. Other traditional UN donors like Britain, France, Germany and Japan have reduced aid allocations and sought reforms this year.
“The agreement requires the UN to consolidate humanitarian functions to reduce bureaucratic overhead, unnecessary duplication, and ideological creep,” the State Department said in a statement. “Individual UN agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.”
“Nowhere is reform more important than the humanitarian agencies, which perform some of the UN’s most critical work,” the department added.
“Today’s agreement is a critical step in those reform efforts, balancing President Trump’s commitment to remaining the world’s most generous nation, with the imperative to bring reform to the way we fund, oversee, and integrate with UN humanitarian efforts.”
At its core, the reform project will help establish pools of funding that can be directed either to specific crises or countries in need. A total of 17 countries will be targeted initially, including Bangladesh, Congo, Haiti, Syria and Ukraine.
One of the world’s most desperate countries, Afghanistan, is not included, nor are the Palestinian territories, which officials say will be covered by money stemming from Trump’s as-yet-incomplete Gaza peace plan.
The project, months in the making, stems from Trump’s longtime view that the world body has great promise, but has failed to live up to it, and has — in his eyes — drifted too far from its original mandate to save lives while undermining American interests, promoting radical ideologies and encouraging wasteful, unaccountable spending.
Fletcher praised the deal, saying in a statement, “At a moment of immense global strain, the United States is demonstrating that it is a humanitarian superpower, offering hope to people who have lost everything.”