Aid cuts leaving millions without support

“Cuts in aid from major donors are close to crippling the humanitarian response in some of the world’s most dire displacement crises. It is hard to articulate the depth of donors’ abandonment. Compared to this point last year, just two-thirds of the humanitarian funding has been received, which itself was dramatically lower than the previous year,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of NRC. “These cuts are costing lives and must be reversed.”

As of the end of June, 6 billion US Dollars have been provided globally for the humanitarian response, down from 9 billion US Dollars at the same point in 2024. In total, 44 billion US Dollars has been requested for 2025.

Last month the United Nations announced a ‘hyper-prioritised’ plan to try and ensure the most vulnerable were able to receive support. This plan aims to reach 114 million of the 300 million people in need, with 29 billion US Dollars. This prioritisation leaves almost 200 million people who need assistance beyond the focus of the humanitarian response.

“Given the funding levels so far in 2025, even many of those targeted by the ‘hyper-prioritised’ plan are likely to be left with their needs unmet. Alongside traditional humanitarian donors, we need to see other step up to bridge this gap, including a wider group of donor countries and the private sector. Development actors, including development banks, must also step up their investments in fragile and conflict-affected countries so that displaced people and host communities can access the support they need,” said Egeland.

The consequences of aid cuts can be clearly seen across the world. In Mozambique, where Japan is so far this year’s largest humanitarian donor country, aid agencies are being forced to scale down their support due to the abrupt ending of their United States (US) funding.

“I witnessed first-hand the consequences in Mozambique, where I saw water tanks that can no longer be refilled due to the overnight cancellation of US funding. Families are left without a safe supply of drinking water. This is not only devastating lives but means that good investments already made with taxpayers’ money are getting lost. Our NRC teams too have been forced to scale down their support due to this halt in funding, and are now no longer able to provide safe housing for families made homeless by the recent cyclones. This is truly gut-wrenching,” said Egeland.

In Afghanistan, the US has drastically cut its aid work. Last year it supported 45 per cent of the humanitarian response in country. 

“Our teams in Afghanistan remain on the ground and committed to the communities we have been working with for over two decades, but having lost our largest donor in the country our teams are being compelled to make heartbreaking choices on who and where we can help. We are not alone in this challenge. Many humanitarian organisations are being forced to reduce their support at a time when we are seeing more and more families returning to the country in need of urgent assistance,” said Egeland.

“This picture is being repeated time and time again around the world as international solidarity is being forced to cede to other priorities. Wealthy nations should step up funding before more lives are lost. If we can afford to host World Cups and global summits, and if NATO members can afford to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP, we can afford to maintain support to the most vulnerable in their hour of greatest need.”

Notes to editors:

• By 30 June 2025, a reported 5.96 billion USD had been delivered for the global humanitarian response (OCHA). That is down from 9 billion USD delivered at the same time last year (NRC). In total, 44.2 billion USD has been requested (OCHA).
• In June the United Nations announced a ‘hyper-prioritised’ plan which aims to reach 114 million of the 300 million people in need, with 29 billion US Dollars (OCHA).
• Four of the five lowest funded humanitarian (and needs) response plans for 2025 are in Latin America, all of which are less than 10% funded – Haiti (8.2%), Mali (8.5%), El Salvador (8.7%), Honduras (9%) and Venezuela (9.3%) (OCHA).
• In Mozambique, Japan has provided 14.4 million USD to the 2025 humanitarian needs and response plan. 352 million USD is required. Overall, 17.4% of the plan has been funded to date (OCHA).
• In 2024, the US provided 45% of the humanitarian funding for Afghanistan. The next largest donors were ECHO followed by the UK (12 and 10% of funding) (OCHA). 22% of the 2025 humanitarian needs and response plan is currently funded. While a notable portion of this is US funding no new US funding has been made available since January’s funding freeze was announced (OCHA).
• Many major donors are cutting foreign aid budgets, which include both humanitarian and development funding. In January, the United States (US) suspended ongoing aid projects to conduct a foreign assistance review, forcing the majority of US-funded humanitarian work to be put on hold or, eventually, to cease (Devex). In February, the United Kingdom announced it would be cutting Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.5% to 0.3% of Gross National Income (UK Government). In February, the Dutch government also announced a EUR 2.4 billion cut in development aid from 2027 (Government of the Netherlands). The French government announced it would reduce public development assistance by more than EUR 2 billion – close to 40% of its annual funding (RFI). Swiss, Swedish, German and Belgian governments have also announced cuts in aid assistance budgets (Devex, Devex, SwissInfo, Development Today).
• NRC’s programmes funded by the United States have been greatly disrupted by the changing situation. While many of them have now been able to resume as they have been deemed lifesaving, the long-term picture remains very uncertain. NRC is still owed millions of US Dollars for already delivered programmes, including some outstanding payments from 2024. This uncertainty around payment is very disruptive to our ability to deliver.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

• NRC global media hotline: media@nrc.no, +47 905 62 329