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	Devastating funding cuts have left millions of people without aid by UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs   Dec. 2025   In 2025, humanitarian funding saw its greatest contraction in a decade, with donor cuts causing funding to drop below 2016 levels.   The United States of America—traditionally, the largest humanitarian donor—funded $2.5 billion against the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview, compared to $11 billion in 2024.   This came on top of reductions from other donors, including France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and on the back of a reduction in humanitarian aid from 2023 to 2024.   Confronted with this reality, in mid-2025, humanitarians took excruciatingly difficult decisions to hyper-prioritize response for people facing the most life-threatening needs.   The dramatic reduction in funding forced humanitarian organizations to severely reduce delivery to people in crisis—shutting down programmes, closing offices and laying off thousands of staff—with devastating consequences.   Globally, these funding shortfalls have meant that:   Millions of crisis-affected people around the world did not receive the help they needed. While some form of humanitarian assistance reached nearly 98 million people in 2025, this represented just 65 per cent of people targeted. This is a stark reduction from 2024, when 123 million people—25 million more than in 2025—received at least one form of assistance.   The contraction of humanitarian action was particularly evident in 21 countries which received less funding and reached fewer people.   In countries like Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen, millions of people in each country did not receive planned assistance.   When people did receive humanitarian assistance and protection, it was often significantly reduced. In the Central African Republic, more than 50 per cent of people who received assistance only received one-third of the expected aid. In Somalia, food security partners reduced transfer values, the duration of assistance and had to cut people assisted by 70 per cent.   Meanwhile, Sudanese refugees arriving in Uganda only received 60 per cent of the standard food ration (worth $8). In Egypt, a monthly cash assistance programme for refugees was reduced both in terms of the number of people reached as well as the transfer value. In Venezuela, people reached with aid saw their food rations cut in half and given at a lower frequency.   Cuts in food assistance and emergency agriculture are jeopardizing lives.   While acute hunger rose in 2025, humanitarian funding for food assistance, nutrition, and emergency agriculture plummeted, with a 51 per cent projected drop between 2022 and 2025. This would return funding to levels last seen in 2016–2017, despite the prevalence of acute hunger doubling since then. The impact is severe.   Humanitarian actors are forced to hyper-prioritize responses, reducing coverage and sharply cutting rations. Programmes to treat acute malnutrition are being scaled back, leaving millions of children at risk of death.   At the same time, funding shortfalls are eroding the ability to collect and analyse reliable food security and nutrition data, weakening the evidence base for effective response.   At the start of 2025, Food Security Cluster partners identified 190 million people in need out of 295 million facing IPC/CH Phase 3 (Crisis) or above.   Initially, 104 million were targeted. By mid-year, funding shortfalls forced a reduction to 79.8 million, leaving nearly one in four people originally targeted without aid.   Funding cuts may well drive nearly 14 million people in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) towards Emergency levels of hunger.   Across Sudan—one of the worst food crises with confirmed famine in El Fasher and Kadugli—only 3.5 million out of 10 million severely and extremely food insecure people are receiving regular monthly food assistance.   In Uganda, only 45 per cent of Sudanese refugees received rations in 2025. In Myanmar, 825,000 people did not receive life-saving emergency food assistance, while in Afghanistan, only around 1 million of the most vulnerable people will receive food assistance in 2025, compared to 5.6 million during the same period in 2024.   By mid-2025, only 16 per cent of people targeted with emergency agriculture were reached. This shortfall means that, looking ahead to 2026, more people will likely require food assistance—at a higher cost than if they had been supported to produce their own food—and many may face worsening acute food insecurity.   Health services for 52.6 million people were shuttered or reduced due to underfunding, significantly increasing the risk of preventable death. The funding cuts affected more than 6,600 health facilities across 22 countries (as of 20 September 2025), a third of which were forced to suspend operations.   In Sudan alone, more than 180 health facilities are no longer supported, affecting almost 2.7 million people’s ability to access health care services.   In Somalia, more than 150 health facilities have closed due to funding cuts, including at least eight hospitals and 40 primary care centres.   In Myanmar, 600,000 people will not receive essential healthcare services, supplies or emergency referral services. In Yemen, no health service for communicable diseases was available in 39 per cent of health facilities monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO).   Communicable disease outbreaks became harder to prevent and contain, including due to cuts to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.   In South Sudan, partners struggled to control the spread of cholera due to access and underfunding, while in Chad underfunding stalled investments in water systems and sanitation, undermining efforts to contain the disease.   In Syria, WASH partners suspended or decreased their response in more than 350 camps in northeast and northwest Syria, leaving more than 250,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) with very limited access to WASH services. Meanwhile, in Yemen, water and sanitation conditions will deteriorate for over 15 million people who are already water insecure. And in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, limited health services combined with reduced water availability, uncollected waste and poor sanitation have increased the risk of disease outbreaks for the Rohingya.   Children faced a heightened risk of severe malnutrition and death as nutrition programmes are cut back.   In Yemen, one of the worst nutrition crises globally, a staggering 70 per cent of the needs for moderate acute malnutrition are unmet, leaving an estimated 450,000 vulnerable children and mothers without critical care each month.   Haiti’s nutrition crisis is at a tipping point: one in three children with acute malnutrition will remain untreated without additional resources, placing over 187,000 children at heightened risk of preventable death.   In Somalia, nutrition services declined by 39 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024, with over 60,500 children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) missing treatment, alongside 140,000 moderately malnourished children and 17,000 pregnant women.   In Chad, 240,000 children did not receive planned nutrition assistance, and in Burkina Faso, more than one-third of all nutrition programmes—and thousands of children’s lives—are at risk.   In Nigeria, the scale down of nutrition programmes in July 2025 affected more than 300,000 children. In areas where clinics closed, malnutrition levels deteriorated from “serious” to “critical” in the third quarter of 2025.   Gains in reducing maternal mortality risk immediate reversal, as sexual and reproductive healthcare services are cut. Sixty-two per cent of surveyed partners working on maternal, newborn and child health reported having to downsize their programs, while 37 per cent suspended activities, and 19 per cent permanently closed initiatives.   Support for midwives in crisis settings has been dramatically scaled back, jeopardizing the health and lives of pregnant women and newborns. In Syria, funding cuts are impacting reproductive and maternal health, with 24 safe spaces and service delivery points, 15 hospitals, 54 health facilities and 26 mobile teams at risk of closure.   Protection programmes, more broadly, were forced to scale down or stop altogether in multiple countries, increasing the risk of exposure to violence and exploitation.   In Nigeria, despite renewed violence, 1.4 million people did not receive protection support. In Afghanistan, protection services for over 3.3 million people, including more than 1.6 million children, could no longer be provided.   In Syria, some 2.5 million children, including those with disabilities, remain exposed to the worst forms of violence and exploitation and will not have access to child protection response services.   In Uganda, loss of experienced child protection staff has weakened survivor-centered care: by September 2025, child protection cases had surged by 37 per cent to 26,245, compared to the same period in 2024. In Somalia, protection services were halved, affecting 1.7 million people, including 600,000 children.   Funding cuts have also affected mine action: 65 per cent of the Syrian population (15.4 million people) will continue to be exposed to the risk of explosive ordnance contamination. In Afghanistan, which has one of the world’s highest explosive ordnance casualty rates, the number of mine action teams has decreased by a third. In Yemen, where funding cuts have halted mine clearance programmes, five children were killed in July while playing football, highlighting the risk that unexploded ordnance poses to all people.   Gender-based violence (GBV) response and prevention efforts were reduced or shut down, removing access to vital services for survivors and increasing the risk of harm at a time when GBV is increasing.   One-third of women-rights organizations and civil society organizations working to end violence against women reported programme suspension or closure.   As of 20 November 2025, only 19 per cent of GBV requirements were funded— forcing decisions about which safe spaces stay open and where the last post-rape kits go. The consequences are already visible: over 460,000 people in West and Central Africa have lost access to GBV services. In the Central African Republic, GBV service coverage dropped from 44 per cent to 22 per cent while in Burkina Faso, only 45,000 people received dignity kits (9 per cent of the target). Seventy-two per cent of localities in northern and central Mali lack any GBV service due to funding shortages.   Millions of children’s futures are in jeopardy, as cuts hit education services. In emergencies, schools are more than places of learning: they are safe spaces that provide hope, stability, protection and access to essential services.   In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, underfunding left over 190,000 Rohingya children without education due to closures of learning facilities. In Afghanistan, around 145,000 children (60 per cent girls) will not be able to access education through community-based interventions, and an additional 130,000 children (67,600 girls) will not be reached with a second round of teaching and learning materials. This comes at a time when more than 2.2 million Afghan girls are banned from attending school beyond primary school.   In Turkiye, underfunding of the Syria refugee response meant that approximately 250,000 refugee children remained out of school, with 32 per cent of families citing financial difficulties as the primary barrier to enrolling and retaining their children in school.   In Uganda, funding cuts forced the layoff of 2,000 teachers, causing the pupil-to-teacher ratio to balloon from 1:77 (2024) to 1:117 (2025)—more than double the national standard of 1:53, with nearly 120 students per classroom.   Overall, if funding cuts materialize as envisaged in 2026, 6 million more children—30 per cent of them in humanitarian settings—risk being out of school by the end of 2026 (increasing from 272 million to 276 million).   Lack of shelter is leaving millions of people exposed to the elements and violence, while fewer management services risk the functioning of displacement sites and camps.   In Myanmar, 1.3 million conflict-affected internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other vulnerable people did not receive shelter due to funding cuts. In Nigeria, this was the case for 631,000 families. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 85 per cent of people targeted for shelter response did not receive assistance. In Chad, 56,000 vulnerable households remained without emergency shelter following the floods.   In Haiti, only 91 IDP sites out of 238 sites (38 per cent) had a site manager, leaving more than 110,000 displaced people without management or coordination of essential services. In Somalia, Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) partners ceased operations in 15 districts, suspending services for 900,000 IDPs.   Cash and voucher assistance (CVA)—including multi-purpose cash—has been drastically reduced in multiple countries. CVA is projected to drop precipitously in 2025, after already decreasing in 2024 as a proportion of humanitarian assistance.   In Somalia, only 273,000 people (29 per cent of the target) received cash assistance. In Sudan, over 250,000 people did not receive cash-based individual protection assistance. In Lebanon, more than 300,000 vulnerable households will remain without critical cash support through 2026 if funding is not received, forcing families to resort to harmful coping mechanisms such as reducing meals, accumulating debt, or engaging in child labour and child marriage.   In the Central African Republic (CAR), the number of people receiving cash and voucher assistance decreased by 76 per cent (or three quarters), from 407, 000 people in mid-2024 to 96,000 people mid-2025.   Services for refugees and migrants have been hit hard. In Lebanon around 1.4 million people risk losing access to primary health care, with essential refugee health services expected to phase out by the end of 2025.   By the end of September 2025, only 21 per cent of the 493,400 people targeted under the Venezuela Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP) had been reached, while protection monitoring confirmed that unmet humanitarian needs are increasingly translating into harmful coping mechanisms, irregular movements, and social tensions in host communities.   Funding cuts also compromised critical enablers that are the backbone of coordinated humanitarian responses.   The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) was forced to suspend or reduce flights in countries such as Afghanistan and Nigeria, while other air operations were on the precipice of collapse due to inadequate or delayed funding.   In CAR, warehouses closed and the Logistics Cluster was only able to transport half of the planned emergency airfreight cargo to hard-to-reach communities.   And yet, the funding requested for humanitarian action is extremely modest in comparison to other expenditures and/or profits globally. It amounts to less than one per cent of global military expenditure (which has reached over $2.7 trillion in 2024) or less than half a per cent of the global banking industry’s profits. With a minor adjustment of these priorities and/or donation of these profits, global humanitarian action could be immediately and fully funded.   * According to the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO), 239 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2026. Of these, the UN and humanitarian partners will try to reach 135 million, of which 87 are deemed an immediate priority and face the most urgent needs. The UN and humanitarian partners have asked for 33 billion USD to meet the needs of the 135 million people targeted, while 23 billion is required to meet the most urgent needs (OCHA).   In 2025, 44 billion USD was requested – the lowest amount since 2021. As of early December, just 28 per cent is funded (12 billion) (OCHA). In June 2025 in acknowledgement of cuts, a ‘hyper-prioritised’ appeal was launched which seeks 29 billion US Dollars to meet the most critical life-saving needs of 114 million people (OCHA).    Since the 2025 GHO, there has been a change in how the numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance are calculated. The UN has adopted a narrower definition of “humanitarian needs” than in previous years, to offer what it believes is a more realistic assessment of priorities in light of the widespread cuts to humanitarian funding and in line with the 'humanitarian reset'. This comes on top of a similar exercise conducted for the 2025 GHO.   It is important to be aware that the lower number of people in need figure compared to last year (239 million now vs 305 million last year) does not mean that humanitarian needs have decreased– on the contrary, in many places the situation has worsened significantly.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/under-fire-and-under-pressure-what-happens-when-humanitarian-action-hindered http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/trends-crises-and-needs-world-breaking-point http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026/article/humanitarians-action-delivering-2025-amid-extreme-challenges http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-prioritize-feeding-110-million-hungriest-2026-global-hunger-deepens-amidst-uncertain http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/despite-funding-cuts-unhcr-responded-multiple-complex-emergencies-last-year http://www.unfpa.org/emergencies http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/december/2026-millions-in-need-will-not-get-aid-unless-global-solidarity-revived http://reliefweb.int/report/world/year-no-other-ngo-statement-launch-new-un-2026-appeal   http://www.wvi.org/newsroom/emergencies/nogs-call-action-and-funding-global-humanitarian-overview http://www.icrc.org/en/article/humanitarian-outlook-2026 http://www.icrc.org/en/publication/icrc-humanitarian-outlook-2026-world-succumbing-war http://www.msf.org/attacks-medical-care-armed-conflict-reach-record-levels http://globalprotectioncluster.org/index.php/publications/2393/communication-materials/advocacy-note/high-level-humanitarian-donors-briefing   http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/december/2026-millions-in-need-will-not-get-aid-unless-global-solidarity-revived http://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-briefs/a-generational-collapse-tracking-the-toll-of-trumps-humanitarian-aid-cuts/ http://www.refugeesinternational.org/events-and-testimony/aid-cuts-one-year-on-local-solutions-to-indefensible-harm/ http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2025/12/11/abrupt-transitions-global-humanitarian-overview-pushes-dangerous-trend http://www.rescue.org/press-release/irc-emergency-watchlist-2026-new-world-disorder-driving-unprecedented-humanitarian http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/publications/global-hunger-hotspots-report-2026/ Visit the related web page
	We must confront the climate risks endangering 900 million poor people by UNDP, Oxford University, Global Hunger Index   17 Oct. 2025   Multidimensional Poverty Index Report reveals majority of the world's poor live in regions exposed to Climate Hazards   Nearly 8 in 10 people living in multidimensional poverty – 887 million out of 1.1 billion globally – are directly exposed to climate hazards such as extreme heat, flooding, drought, or air pollution, according to a new report released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.   The 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report “Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards”, released ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, presents new evidence that the climate crisis is reshaping global poverty. By overlaying climate hazard data with multidimensional poverty data for the first time, the findings reveal a world where poverty is not just a standalone socio-economic issue but one that is deeply interlinked with planetary pressures and instability.   Exposure to climate hazards likely exacerbates the daily challenges faced by people living in poverty, reinforcing and deepening their disadvantages. The report finds that among those assessed to be living in acute multidimensional poverty – spanning health, education, and living standards – an overwhelming 651 million endure two or more climate hazards, while 309 million face three or four hazards simultaneously.   “Our new research shows that to address global poverty and create a more stable world for everyone, we must confront the climate risks endangering nearly 900 million poor people,” said Haoliang Xu, UNDP Acting Administrator. “When world leaders meet in Brazil for the Climate Conference, COP30, next month, their national climate pledges must revitalize the stagnating development progress that threatens to leave the world’s poorest people behind.”   The Burden of Concurrent Poverty and Climate Hazards   The findings emphasize that poor people globally are often confronting multiple, concurrent environmental challenges rather than a single one in isolation.   Of the 887 million poor people exposed to at least one climate hazard, 651 million face two or more concurrent hazards. Alarmingly, 309 million poor people live in regions exposed to three or four overlapping climate hazards while experiencing acute multidimensional poverty.   These individuals face a "triple or quadruple burden," often possessing limited assets and minimal access to social protection systems, amplifying the negative effects of the shocks.   Individually, the most widespread hazards affecting poor people globally are high heat (608 million) and air pollution (577 million). Flood-prone regions are home to 465 million poor people, while 207 million live in areas affected by drought.   “This report shows where the climate crisis and poverty are notably converging. Understanding where the planet is under greatest strain and where people face additional burdens created by climate challenges is essential to creating mutually reinforcing development strategies that put humanity at the centre of climate action,” said co-author, Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.   The burden of exposure is distributed unevenly across regions and income groups. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are identified as global hotspots for these compounded hardships, accounting for the largest numbers of poor people living in regions affected by climate hazards (380 million and 344 million respectively).   In South Asia, the exposure is nearly universal; fully 99.1 percent of poor people in the region are exposed to one or more climate shocks (380 million people), with 91.6 percent (351 million) facing two or more, much higher than any other world region. Despite making momentous and historic strides in poverty reduction, South Asia must also accelerate climate action.   Across income groups, lower-middle-income countries bear the greatest burden of exposure of poor people to climate hazards, both in terms of absolute number and high proportion.   Some 548 million poor people in lower-middle-income countries are estimated to be exposed to at least one climate hazard, representing 61.8% of global poor people who are exposed to any climate hazard. Critically, over 470 million poor people in lower-middle-income countries confront two or more, concurrent climate hazards simultaneously.   Projected Future Inequity   “The burdens identified are not limited to the present but are expected to intensify in the future,” said Pedro Conceicao, Director of the Human Development Report Office, UNDP. Analysis of temperature projection data reveals that countries with higher current levels of multidimensional poverty are predicted to experience the greatest increases in temperatures by the end of this century.   These findings highlight the urgent need for global action to address the unequal burden of climate-related hazards on people living in multidimensional poverty. Confronting these overlapping risks requires moving from recognition to action, emphasizing the need for climate-resilient poverty reduction strategies, strengthened local capacities for adaptation, and scaled international redistribution and cooperative finance mechanisms.   http://www.undp.org/press-releases/new-global-multidimensional-poverty-index-report-reveals-nearly-80-worlds-poor-live-regions-exposed-climate-hazards http://hdr.undp.org/content/2025-global-multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi#/indicies/MPI http://ophi.org.uk/news/nearly-80-worlds-poor-live-regions-exposed-climate-hazards http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166125   Oct. 2025   Report highlights need for urgency to tackle global hunger as progress stalls   The possibility of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030 is slipping away. At the current rate of progress, it will take more than 100 years before low hunger levels globally will be reached, according to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2025, published today.   “At the current pace, at least 56 countries will not reach low hunger—let alone Zero Hunger—by 2030,” Concern Worldwide Director of Strategy, Advocacy and Learning Reiseal Ni Cheilleachair warned today at the launch of the GHI report. “If progress remains at the pace observed since 2016, low hunger at the global level may not be reached until 2137—more than a century away.”   The GHI is published by Irish humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide, German aid agency Welthungerhilfe, and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict.   The report notes that the lack of progress reported in 2025 reflects overlapping and accelerating global crises such as escalating conflicts, climate shocks, economic fragility, and political disengagement.   “But hunger is not inevitable. It is a result of the lack of sustained political will, policy failure, policy financing, and implementation,” Ms Ni Cheilleachair said. “The international community needs to re-energise, re-commit and re-focus its efforts to tackle global hunger levels, prioritising communities and people who are most affected.”   In 2025 the global GHI score has improved only slightly compared to the 2016 score. The lack of progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is evidence of leaders’ policy ambivalence: stated ambitions are not being met with adequate resources or actions, the report notes. “Putting it in simple terms, talk is not being backed by action,” Ms Ni Cheilleachair said.   Instead of correcting course, many decision-makers are ignoring or underinvesting in commitments that they have already made. They are doubling down on de-stabilising policies. Vital monitoring and early-warning systems which are used to track hunger are being undermined by security risks, bureaucratic impediments, and funding cuts that hamper aid delivery and data collection.   The 2025 GHI shows that hunger is considered ‘alarming’* in seven countries: Burundi; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Haiti; Madagascar; Somalia; South Sudan; and Yemen. In another 35 countries, hunger is designated as ‘serious’. Many countries are slipping backward: in 27 countries with low, moderate, serious, or alarming 2025 GHI scores, hunger has increased since 2016.   The report’s authors also express concern that there are data gaps which prevent the calculation of GHI scores in countries including Burundi, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan and Yemen. These gaps obscure the true extent of hunger in these countries. Available indicators, however, point to deteriorating conditions and suggest that the reality is more alarming than the current figures reveal.   The GHI 2025 is published at a time when humanitarian funding is being cut and investment in military spending is increasing. Assistance is increasingly limited to only the most acute cases, leaving many without support.   As systems to measure and respond to hunger are dismantled or weakened, a dangerous loop is created where humanitarian needs are invisible and so attract no assistance, the report warns.   The GHI 2025 report does contain some positive developments, including global improvement in undernourishment levels in parts of South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. It notes that sustained investments can drive meaningful progress in reducing hunger.   http://www.concern.net/press-releases/report-highlights-need-urgency-tackle-global-hunger-progress-stalls http://www.globalhungerindex.org/
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