Drastic cuts in foreign aid are becoming increasingly common among major donors in Europe and the United States, with a direct impact on the most vulnerable populations.
In France, the government announced further cuts of €700 million in its official development assistance (ODA) in early July, reducing it to €3.7 billion in 2026 to help reduce the public deficit.
In the United Kingdom, the decision taken in February to reduce ODA to 0.3% of GDP from 2027, compared with the target of 0.7%, is accompanied by an increase in military spending. A similar trend is observed in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
Across the Atlantic, the United States dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID). It suspended its foreign funding for 90 days in January. On 13 August, an appeals court upheld $8 billion in annual cuts to US aid, voted by Congress in mid-July.
This amount includes the elimination of nearly $1 billion in funding for the UN. This figure should be put into perspective, given that the United States contributed $13 billion to the organisation in 2023, including its mandatory contribution to the UN Secretariat’s budget.
40% less funding than in July 2024 for humanitarian aid
At the end of June, less than 17% of the $46 billion needed to meet global humanitarian needs in 2025 had been received, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This represents an alarming 40% drop compared to the same period in 2024.
“We have been forced into a triage of human survival,” said Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. “The math is cruel, and the consequences are heartbreaking. Too many people will not get the support they need, but we will save as many lives as we can with the resources we are given.”
Faced with the most significant budget cuts ever experienced by the international humanitarian system, OCHA has launched a high-priority global appeal to help 114 million people by targeting the most urgent needs.
Millions of people deprived of healthcare
The United States, the largest contributor to the World Health Organization (WHO), announced its withdrawal in January 2025.
In a press briefing on August 7, 2025, the WHO director stated that “sudden and drastic cuts in humanitarian aid are currently causing the most serious disruption to health systems since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the latest WHO analysis, health aid is expected to decline by nearly 40% this year compared to just two years ago. This is not a gradual change, but a veritable chasm.
Life-saving medicines remain stored in warehouses, health professionals are losing their jobs, clinics are closing, and millions of people are being deprived of care. “
Two examples among many: lack of funding is preventing a rapid response to a cholera epidemic among refugee populations in eastern Chad. In Ukraine, more than 640,000 women will lose access to psychological support related to gender-based violence and to UNFPA safe spaces.
Only $5 per month for 2 million refugees in Uganda
By 2025, the funding needs of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will amount to $10.6 billion. At mid-year, only 23% of these needs had been met.
Up to 11.6 million refugees and other people forced to flee their homes are at risk of being deprived of direct humanitarian assistance from UNHCR this year, according to a report published on 18 July. This figure represents about one-third of the people who received assistance from the organization in 2024.
Nearly 2 million refugees are affected in Uganda. Since the beginning of the year, an average of 600 people have been arriving in the country every day from conflict zones in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Already the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and the third-largest in the world, Uganda currently hosts 1.93 million refugees.
The estimated cost of caring for a refugee in Uganda in 2025 is approximately $16 per month. Due to a lack of funding, aid will now be reduced to $5 per month, UNHCR said on 5 August.
Food rations reduced to a quarter in Kenya, set to be eliminated in Nigeria
In Kenya, food rations provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) to 720,000 refugees have decreased since the beginning of the year, and in June amounted to only 28% of a standard ration.
The case of Nigeria reminds us that displaced people are also being put to the test. No fewer than 1.3 million people in northeastern Nigeria are at risk of being deprived of food aid, and 150 nutrition centres serving 300,000 children could close, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
Without an immediate influx of donations, only 650,000 people will be helped in August. After that, the programs will have to be suspended. “Families here will face impossible choices,” explains Dr. John Ifuk-Ibot, WFP nutrition manager in Nigeria. “Go hungry or flee again.”
Only 14% of humanitarian aid appeal for Syria funded
In Syria, a country ravaged by 13 years of civil war (2011-2024) until the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, 16 million people are in need of humanitarian support.
However, the appeal for funding launched by OCHA has only raised 14% of the needs for 2025, Tom Fletcher pointed out on August 21. “Our humanitarian appeal for 2025 is only 14% funded. Aid cuts are projected to result in staffing cuts of at least 40% across the humanitarian community in Syria, with NGOs being hit the hardest. Sixteen per cent of health facilities have suspended or reduced capacity due to cuts.”
Tom Fletcher thanked donors who continue to care about this crisis, led by the European Union (EU), Germany, and Canada.
DRC, Sudan, Myanmar, Haiti: forgotten crises are multiplying
However, many major crises are being overlooked, with the risk that more than 4.3 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be deprived of all humanitarian aid by 2026, according to OCHA.
The same is true in Sudan and South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen, countries where UNICEF and WFP are sounding the alarm over the threat of famine and child malnutrition.
The situation of Rohingya refugees who have fled persecution in Myanmar to Bangladesh is also deteriorating. Aid is threatening to collapse, particularly in the world’s largest refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar.
In Haiti, plagued by gang violence, the humanitarian response had received less than 9% of the $908 million needed in July 2025. Yet this Caribbean country has 1.3 million displaced people, 1,600 closed schools, and 217,000 children identified by UNICEF as suffering from severe malnutrition. Only 21,500 of them have received treatment this year. “Haiti remains (…) the least funded country in our appeals for all underfunded countries in the world,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief.
UN agencies and their civil society partners impacted
The impact of the suspension of external aid was immediate for the major UN agencies, which are funded by voluntary contributions—unlike the UN Secretariat, whose budget depends on mandatory contributions from all member states. These agencies were forced to reduce their staff, for example, by 30% in the case of UNHCR. In comparison, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had to restructure after losing 30% of its funding in 2025.
International and local NGOs working with the United Nations have also been hit hard. On 13 May 2025, UN Women published a report entitled “At a breaking point: The impact of foreign aid cuts on women’s organizations in humanitarian crises around the world.”
Based on the results of a rapid global survey of 411 women-led organizations advocating for women’s rights in 44 crisis contexts, the report reveals that 90% of the organizations surveyed have been affected by budget cuts, and half could close within six months.