Children, refugees and internally displaced people around the world are paying the price for the funding crisis that has gripped the international aid sector - made much worse by radical cuts by the United States - the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Friday. Brutal funding cutbacks to the humanitarian sector are putting millions of lives at risk, with immediate and devastating consequences for the most vulnerable.
“Since the year 2000, the number of stunted children has decreased by 55 million, or one third. In 2024, UNICEF and our partners reached 441 million children under five with services to prevent all forms of malnutrition, while 9.3 million children received treatment for severe wasting and others forms of severe acute malnutrition,” Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, told journalists in Geneva.
UNICEF's partners in the government, philanthropic and civil sectors play a critical role in preventing and treating child malnutrition on a global scale, she stressed.
“Today, those hard-earned gains are being rolled back because humanitarian and nutrition partners face a different, deepening crisis – namely the sharp decline in funding support for our lifesaving work,” van der Heijden said, speaking via video link from Abuja, Nigeria.
The decisions were made “suddenly and without warning, leaving us with no time to mitigate their impact on our programs for children,” she added, and to make matters worse, several donors were cutting aid at the same time.
These cuts did not have abstract consequences; they had a real impact on real children, here and now.
“Earlier this week, I saw the consequences of the funding crisis firsthand when I visited the Afar region in the north of Ethiopia and Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria,” she said.
Only 7 of the 30 UNICEF-supported mobile health and nutrition units in Afar are currently operational as a direct result of the global funding crisis.
“Due to funding gaps in both countries, nearly 1.3 million children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition could lose access to treatment over the course of the year – leaving them at heightened risk of death,” van der Heijden said.
Without new funding, UNICEF would run out of the life-saving treatments by May, with potentially dire consequences for 75,000 children. In Nigeria, on the other hand, 80,000 children needed such support every month, and supplies could run out any time between now and May.
Van der Heijden stressed the importance of early support, not just treating the acute consequences of malnutrition, adding that the biggest immediate concern was that even a brief interruption of critical life-saving activities put the lives of millions of children at risk.
UNICEF estimates that more than 213 million children in 146 countries and territories will need humanitarian assistance in 2025. Overall, some 307 million people worldwide are in need of humanitarian aid this year.
In response to questions from journalists, the UNICEF official explained that governments took decisions on aid cuts and then changed them, making it difficult to have accurate mortality figures, which were likely to rise if the announced cuts remain in place.
UNICEF is calling on all actors, governments around the world, but also philanthropic organizations, private sector, and individuals, to support the cause.
UNHCR cuts operations and programs due to funding crisis
Finding itself in a similar situation, UNHCR has also announced cuts to operations and programs following the announcement of radical slashing of aid funding from the United States government.
"The biggest concern that we have is, of course, in all of this for refugees, for the displaced, they will be feeling the brunt of these cuts," said Matthew Saltmarsh, UNHCR spokesman, in Geneva.
He said the impact of the cuts was already being felt around the world, including in South Sudan, where 80,000 people have lost access to emergency psychosocial support, and in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where up to one million Rohingya refugees are in urgent need of assistance.
UNHCR is now looking at both increasing donations from existing donors and seeking new sources of funding. Saltmarsh stressed that it was important for individuals, the private sector and governments from around the world to step up to minimize the impact of the US cuts.
In a statement on Thursday, his boss Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned that “brutal funding cuts in the humanitarian sector are putting millions of lives at risk.”
Grandi explained that the consequences for people fleeing danger will be immediate and devastating, with refugee women and girls at extreme risk of rape and other abuse, already losing access to services that have kept them safe.
“Children are being left without teachers or schools, pushing them into child labor, trafficking, or early marriage. Refugee communities will have less shelter, water and food,“ he added.
Noting that most refugees stay close to home, the UNHCR chief stressed that “slashing aid will make the world less safe, driving more desperate people to become refugees or keep moving onwards.”
“This is not just a funding shortfall – it is a crisis of responsibility. The cost of inaction will be measured in suffering, instability and lost futures,” Grandi said.
Global humanitarian funding declines sharply
Global humanitarian funding plummets in 2025, largely due to extreme funding cuts by the United States, but also by other major donors such as the United Kingdom and Germany. While funding has been declining since 2022, despite rising needs, this year's level is expected to fall to a record low following the brutal cuts imposed by the new US administration.
Even before the latest developments in Washington, the global humanitarian system was facing a massive funding crisis after years of growing emergency needs and donors unable or unwilling to respond to millions of women, children and men in need.
Now, severe cuts in humanitarian funding by the United States are beginning to have a devastating impact around the world, putting millions of lives at risk and leaving tens of millions of people without access to the assistance they desperately need.
The announced radical reductions in funding come at a time when global crises are intensifying, putting millions of people at risk of hunger, disease and displacement. The suspension of humanitarian aid marks a sharp break with decades of American foreign policy.
For years, the United States has been the largest single donor of humanitarian aid, followed by the European Union as a whole and Germany in particular. Last year, the US accounted for more than 40 percent of global humanitarian funding tracked by the United Nations.
By contrast, Germany, the second-largest single donor, provided US$2.7 billion, or about 8 percent of global funding. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, also contributed about $2.7 billion, or about 8 percent.
Since February, the US government has been trying to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the world's largest government develpment and humanitarian aid agency.
The move came weeks after the new US administration imposed a near-total halt to US foreign assistance amid a "review," affecting USAID operations and foreign assistance funded by or through the US State Department, with some vague exceptions for certain humanitarian funding.
Funding cuts hit critical humanitarian response in DR Congo
On Friday, UNHCR also warned that critical funding gaps are severely hampering humanitarian efforts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), leaving thousands without life-saving assistance and "pushing an already dire humanitarian situation closer to catastrophe".
In less than three months, the number of Congolese fleeing to neighboring countries has risen to more than 100,000.
Ongoing hostilities in North Kivu province, particularly in the Masisi and Walikale territories, as well as an extremely volatile security situation in the town of Bukavu and surrounding areas in South Kivu province, have forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee.
“Funding constraints have made a proper emergency response by UNHCR […], civil society and local government nearly impossible, hampering shelter construction and the distribution of essentials like blankets, mosquito nets, menstruation supplies and soap,” UNHCR spokesperson Eujin Byun said.
In and around the city of Goma in North Kivu, sites previously home to 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have all been destroyed, leaving families stranded without shelter or protection.
“The situation in neighboring Uganda and Burundi is almost as dire. More than 28,000 Congolese refugees have crossed into Uganda since January this year – a 500 percent increase from the same time last year – with another 10,000 people expected to arrive by the end of this month,” Byun said
Reports from new arrivals indicated a desperate flight from armed conflict and horrific human rights violations. Most reception and transit centers in Uganda were currently hosting seven times more than their capacity and lacked sufficient water, sanitation and shelter.
“Funding cuts have left health centers overwhelmed, with child malnutrition soaring due to the termination of feeding centers in areas hosting the new arrivals,” she added.
Further information
Full text: UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Kitty van der Heijden Palais Briefing on Ethiopia, Nigeria and the global funding crisis, UNICEF, remarks, published March 21, 2025
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-deputy-executive-director-kitty-van-der-heijden-palais-briefing-ethiopia
Full text: UNHCR: DR Congo crisis deepens as funding cuts hit critical humanitarian aid, UNHCR, briefing notes, published March 21, 2025
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-dr-congo-crisis-deepens-funding-cuts-hit-critical-humanitarian-aid
Full text: Statement by UNHCR’s Filippo Grandi on the impact of global aid cuts on refugees, statement, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, released March 20, 2025
https://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/statement-unhcr-s-filippo-grandi-impact-global-aid-cuts-refugees