Foreign aid funding drops by a third after global cuts

The UN has warned that aid funding for dozens of crises around the world has dropped by a third after several countries slashed their humanitarian budgets.

- NICK FERRIS

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that for the 44 crises it has prioritised this year, only around 11 per cent – or $5.4bn (£4bn) – of the $46.2bn required for its response plans has been funded so far this year.

According to Anja Nitzsche, chief of resource mobilisation at OCHA: “Coverage of needs is only [around] 10 per cent, which is significantly lower than the 15 to 18 per cent funding we normally see. We are only around two-thirds of where we are in a typical year, so the trajectory is not good.”

Donald Trump’s decision to slash funding for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programmes has contributed to the drop, with American funding for humanitarian crises down by 42 per cent over the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to OCHA.

In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a region long ravaged by violence, humanitarian aid cuts are biting hard. Oxfam DRC director Manenji Mangundu described how aid cuts came “at the worst possible moment”, with intensifying clashes between armed groups and government forces pushing many of the 700,000 displaced to try and return to their ruined villages for the first time in several years.

“Our staff have harrowing stories about how people eat anything they can find, feeding their children with leaves and scraps scavenged from market floors,” Mangundu said. “Many sell their belongings, such as goats or mobile phones, at very low prices to obtain food or medicine. Others beg for food or money, incur debts they are unable to repay, or steal from fields to survive.”