UN cuts its aid appeal for 2026 despite soaring need

8/12/2025 15:12

The United Nations on Monday appealed for an aid budget only half the size of what it had hoped for this year, acknowledging a plunge in donor funding at a time when humanitarian needs have never been greater.



By its own admission, the $23 billion U.N. appeal will shut out tens of millions of people in urgent need of help as falling support has forced it to prioritise only the most desperate.



The funding cuts come on top of other challenges for aid agencies that include security risks to staff in conflict zones and lack of access.



"It's the cuts ultimately that are forcing us into these tough, tough, brutal choices that we're having to make," U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher told reporters.



A year ago, the U.N. sought some $47 billion for 2025 - a figure that was later pared back as the scale of aid cuts by U.S. President Donald Trump as well as other top Western donors such as Germany began to emerge.



November figures showed it had received only $12 billion so far, the lowest in 10 years, covering just over a quarter of needs.