Global hunger worsens as UN aid budget shrinks – Reuters

Over 100 million people around the world will miss out on humanitarian aid next year as the UN has fallen short of its fundraising goals, even as the number of people affected by famine and starvation continues to grow, according to Reuters.

The United Nations has estimated 307 million people worldwide will need humanitarian aid in 2025, up from 282 million in 2023, the agency reported on Tuesday. UN estimates indicate that fundraising for next year may be enough to cover 60% of those in need, leaving approximately 117 million out in the cold.

“We have been forced to scale back appeals to those in most dire need,” said Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

The UN managed to raise only 46% of the $49.6 billion it has sought for the humanitarian aid budget in 2024, missing the target for the second year in a row. This has reportedly forced agencies such as the World Food Program (WFP) to cut rations and restrict eligibility criteria.

“We are at this point taking from the hungry to feed the starving,” the staff in Syria told WFP’s Rania Dagash-Kamara earlier this year. The WFP only had enough donations to feed a million people there, leaving five million more to fend for themselves.

The bulk of the UN’s humanitarian funding comes from just three donors: the US, Germany, and the European Commission. They accounted for 58% of the $170 billion requested by the UN from 2020 to 2024. The US alone provided $64.5 billion, or about 38% of the total.

UN officials fret that US President-elect Donald Trump may cut some of that funding once he takes office in January. Meanwhile, Germany has already slashed its humanitarian aid by $500 million in 2024 and may reduce it by another $1 billion in 2025, depending on election results. Berlin has diverted money from many other budget items to continue providing funding for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia.

Some of the people who spoke to Reuters blamed the dire humanitarian situation on powers such as China and India not giving more.

“These are not developing countries anymore. They are having Olympics... They are having spaceships that many of the other donors never could dream of,” said Jan Egeland, former UN humanitarian aid chief (2003-2006). India spent around $75 million on its lunar program in 2023, while China hosted the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Meanwhile, almost all US donations are subject to a variety of restrictions, from who can receive aid to which specific nonprofits are allowed to distribute it, according to WFP documentation. USAID has justified this by needing to meet the “obligations and standards required by Congress.” Reuters noted that WFP has experienced issues with theft of aid and other forms of corruption in Ethiopia and Sudan.

The current UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, had proposed a reform of humanitarian aid funding in 2014, when he was the head of the UNHCR. The proposal envisioned using the fee system already in place for peacekeeping operations, but it was rejected by major donor countries, which preferred the current system.