Cuts in food rations and emergency assistance are jeopardizing lives around the world by WFP, UNICEF, OCHA, Caritas, Interaction, agencies   Oct. 2025   Brutal aid cuts exact devastating toll on people in need. (UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)   OCHA warns that with fewer than three months left in the year, the 2025 appeal to meet global humanitarian needs is less than a quarter funded.   As of the end of September, just 21 per cent – or nearly US$9.6 billion – of the more than $45.3 billion needed to support life-saving action around the world this year had been received. This is a staggering decrease of over 40 per cent compared to the same time last year.   OCHA stresses that these funding gaps are having devastating consequences for millions – leaving people without healthcare, families without food, and children without education.   In Afghanistan for example more than 420 health facilities have closed this year, forcing 3 million people to go without critical care. In Somalia, food aid had to be slashed – meaning that only 350,000 people will receive support in November, compared to 1.1 million in August.   And in Bangladesh, half a million Rohingya refugee children have lost access to education in Cox’s Bazar.   The UN and its partners are doing all they can to reach as many vulnerable people as possible with the limited funding available. In June, OCHA launched a hyper-prioritized global appeal within this year’s broader Global Humanitarian Overview – a plan that aims to meet the most urgent needs of 114 million people.   OCHA also calls on donors to step up their investment in humanitarian aid. At a time when global needs are immense, more support is critical to save lives.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/hyper-prioritized-global-humanitarian-overview-2025-cruel-math-aid-cuts http://humanitarianaction.info/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-humanitarian-overview-2025-september-update-snapshot-30-september-2025   Oct. 2026   World Food Program says funding cuts are causing acute hunger.   Drastic cuts to international aid mean that the world’s neediest people are suffering from serious food shortages, and will face further reductions in assistance soon, Carl Skau, deputy executive director and chief operating officer of the World Food Program, said.   “We are managing globally a perfect storm with food security needs going up dramatically,” Skau told news agencies. “We’ve seen a three-fold increase only in the past five years, and this year has been really tough also with conflict increasing, extreme climate events and on top of that we now have a funding crunch where the WFP is losing some 40% of our funding.”   The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year to cut more than 90% of the United States Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance around the world — coupled with cuts to international aid from several European countries — has meant that the WFP and other humanitarian agencies have less means to respond, he said.   “In Afghanistan two years ago we were assisting 10 million people, today we are at around 1.5 (million) and we don’t have the resources to preposition food in areas that won’t be accessible during the winter,” Skau said.   Already in Afghanistan, there has been a surge in malnutrition recorded, particularly among young children, over the last few months, he said.   “We know that through this winter, children will die and it’s not only about children dying, I mean when children are severely, acutely malnourished, there are damages to their brains and to their organs that will remain with them for their life,” Skau said.   Conflicts in Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza have made it extremely difficult to reach people in need, and the latter two are already facing famine conditions. A 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar in March has led to even greater needs there, and new challenges in reaching people with humanitarian assistance. The civil war in Myanmar has also meant that even more Rohingya refugees have fled to Cox’s Bazar in neighboring Bangladesh, and there are no immediate prospects for them to safely return home, Skau said.   “So we have a situation where we basically have 1.3 million people in a camp that is like a prison where they do 100% depend on international assistance,” said Skau, who visited Cox’s Bazar earlier this month.   The WFP currently provides refugees there with a $12 monthly voucher for food that has just been enough for them to survive, but with funding running out for that by the end of November, it may have to either reduce the amount or the number of people it supports.   Worldwide, sharply shrinking humanitarian aid is having a catastrophic effect on the most vulnerable people - even as hunger reaches record highs. A new WFP report, A Lifeline at Risk, shows how a 40 percent drop in donations to our operations this year could push up to 13.7 million current WFP aid recipients from crisis into emergency food insecurity. Known as IPC Phase 4, the latter is the second-highest hunger level set by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global authority.   For six hotspot countries - Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan - the ramifications are especially dire, with WFP forced to shrink or end food assistance for millions by year's end. The cuts are hitting some of the world's hungriest communities, already reeling from conflict, displacement and climate shocks. Children, women, refugees and internally displaced people will be the most affected.   And it is only the beginning. The overall fallout of reduced aid will be felt months later, the report warns, and could “severely undermine global food security.”   “This is why we call it a ‘slow burn’ in the report,” says Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of WFP’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service. “Because the cuts haven’t fully fed through the system yet to all countries and communities.”   As WFP and other humanitarian operations shrink and shut, the broader fallout could be equally devastating. “These cuts are triggering additional food insecurity that in itself could have impacts at the country and regional levels,” says Bauer, adding this could affect “the stability of some very fragile countries.”   In Somalia, where 4.4 million people face high levels of hunger, just 350,000 will receive WFP food assistance next month, down from 2.2 million a year ago - even as severe drought grips the Horn of Africa nation..   http://www.wfp.org/stories/afghanistan-south-sudan-shrinking-aid-spiking-hunger http://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000168974/download/ http://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/09/110606/uns-humanitarian-work-underfunded-overstretched-and-under-attack   July 2025   Cuts in food rations and emergency assistance are jeopardizing lives around the world. (OCHA)   By the end of May 2025, nearly 300 million people around the world were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. In the first months of the year, conflicts and violence intensified in multiple countries—deepening needs and driving many people to the brink of death—while natural disasters wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people.   Multiple crises were characterized by systematic violations of international humanitarian law, including mass atrocities, with catastrophic consequences for civilians.   Forced displacement—primarily driven by conflict—reached its highest ever levels. The number of people forced to flee persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order rose in 2024, reaching a record 123.2 million people, or one in 67 people globally.   This included 83.4 million people who remained internally displaced within their own country as a consequence of conflicts and natural disasters, a 12 per cent increase compared to 2023.   In 2025, refugees continued to flee crises—particularly Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar and Sudan—and internal displacement rose rapidly.   In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) , hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were repeatedly forcibly displaced and confined into ever-shrinking spaces. Haiti is seeing record levels of displacement due to violence, with nearly 1.3 million people now internally displaced, a 24 per cent increase since December 2024.   In the DRC, the M23 offensive in the east of the country, beginning in January 2025, displaced over a million people. In Burkina Faso, over 60,000 people were internally displaced in April alone and in Colombia, over 50,000 people were displaced in just two weeks due to the Catatumbo crisis.   With every displacement, urgent shelter needs arise. Shelter is a foundation for survival—without it, people remain exposed to violence, disease, and exploitation. Despite 40 per cent of IDPs globally still residing in displacement sites, the support provided to these locations is minimal.   The global food security crisis escalated dramatically, with 295.3 million people facing high acute food insecurity. Conflict and/or insecurity was responsible for Catastrophic food insecurity (Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) 5) in Haiti, Mali, OPT, South Sudan and Sudan, as well as famine in 10 locations in Sudan and famine-risk across all of Gaza, OPT.   Conflict also caused food insecurity to significantly deteriorate in Myanmar, Nigeria and Sudan, and drove malnutrition crises in Mali, OPT (Gaza), Sudan and Yemen.   Sexual violence was rampant, particularly against women and girls. In the DRC, it was estimated that a child is raped every half hour; in Haiti, there was a tenfold increase in sexual violence against children between 2023 and 2024; in Sudan, the scale and brutality of sexual violence escalated, and around 12.1 million people—nearly one in four, most of them women and girls—are now at risk of gender-based violence.   The horrifying toll of war on children continued to mount, with 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in Gaza, OPT between October 2023 and May 2025, and April 2025 marking the deadliest month for children in Ukraine in nearly three years. In Colombia, more than 46,000 children and adolescents in the Catatumbo region are facing alarming risks.   Attacks against health care disrupted vital and life-saving care for millions of people throughout the first months of 2025, with over 500 attacks recorded—over 300 of which involved the use of heavy weapons—across 13 countries and territories.   The use of explosive weapons in urban areas caused devastating harm for civilians and impacted services essential for their survival, including in Myanmar, OPT, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. It is estimated that some 50 million people suffer the horrific consequences of urban warfare worldwide.   Climate and geological crises: Two major natural disasters occurred in the first half of 2025. On 28 March 2025, two earthquakes struck central Myanmar, killing 3,800 people, injuring 51,000, destroying thousands of homes and disrupting communications, water access and electricity supply. The disaster exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation in the country where, prior to the earthquake, nearly 20 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance.   Meanwhile, in Mozambique, Tropical Cyclone Dikeldi made landfall on 13 January 2025, just a month after Tropical Cyclone Chido on 15 December 2024. The two cyclones impacted 700,000 people and destroyed approximately 150,000 homes, as well as hundreds of schools and health facilities.   The risk of major emergencies continues to rise due to the global climate crisis, with 2024 now confirmed as the warmest year on record, while 2015 to 2024 are all in the ‘Top Ten’. And the future is bleak: there is an 80 per cent chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be hotter than 2024.   Underfunding: millions of people’s lives are hanging in the balance as services, programmes and organizations shut down   At the end of 2024, humanitarian action was already underfunded and under attack. Today, the situation is unimaginably worse: humanitarians are having to dramatically cut assistance and protection for people in crisis as funding plummets, while themselves facing increasing attacks.   In the first five months of 2025, multiple major donors reduced funding, triggering a seismic contraction in global humanitarian action.   The United States of America—which funded 45 per cent of the global humanitarian appeal in 2024—announced a suspension and subsequent termination of many humanitarian contracts, with sudden and widespread consequences around the globe.   This came on top of reductions announced or instituted by other major donors, including Germany and the United Kingdom, and on the back of a reduction in humanitarian aid from 2023 to 2024.   At least 79 million people in crisis will no longer be targeted for assistance as a result and this is likely a significant underestimate.   Cuts in food rations and emergency assistance are jeopardizing the lives and wellbeing of people facing acute food insecurity.   The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that it may reach more than 16 million people less (21 per cent) with emergency food assistance in 2025 compared to the 80 million people assisted in 2024.   Already, prior to 2025, financing for food, cash and emergency agriculture was well below what was required, from Haiti to Mali and South Sudan.   In Bangladesh, one million Rohingya refugees who rely on food assistance will see their monthly food rations halved without additional funding. In Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), one in every three (60 out of 180) community kitchens had to close in just days.   In Sudan, additional funding is urgently needed to procure and distribute seeds, without which, many farmers may miss this critical planting window. In Haiti, which has just entered the Atlantic Hurricane Season and where food insecurity is rampant, WFP, for the first time ever, has no prepositioned food stocks, nor the cash liquidity to mount a swift humanitarian response in the case of a hurricane.   Malnourished children face heightened risk of severe malnutrition and death.   Disruptions to nutrition support and services due to global funding cuts are expected to affect 14 million children, including more than 2.4 million who are already suffering severe acute malnutrition and at imminent risk of death.   In Afghanistan, 298 nutrition sites closed, depriving 80,000 acutely malnourished children, pregnant women, and new mothers of treatment posing a serious risk of increased mortality.   Maternal and infant mortality may rise, as sexual and reproductive healthcare services are cut in countries where risks are already the highest.   Funding cuts have led to facility closures, loss of health workers and disruptions to supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria—all leading causes of maternal deaths.   Severe funding cuts are reducing support for midwives in crisis settings, jeopardizing the health and lives of pregnant women and newborns in some of the most fragile places on earth.   Children are losing access to their future, as access to education diminishes. More than 1.8 million children will miss out on learning due to aid cuts impacting just one NGO’s education programmes in over 20 countries.   Lack of shelter is leaving millions of people exposed to the elements and violence. In some of the world’s biggest crises—including Sudan and DRC—distribution of emergency shelters is at risk of being cut. In Chad, Colombia and Uganda, families face protracted displacement with no shelter assistance on the horizon.   Around the world, budget cuts are forcing humanitarian partners to reduce operations, presence and services. At least 12,000 humanitarian staff contracts have been cut and at least 22 organizations have had to completely close their offices in the relevant countries. National NGOs have reported the highest proportion of terminations.   Separately, almost half (47 per cent) of women-led organizations surveyed are expecting to shut down within six months, if current funding levels persist, and almost three-quarters (72 per cent) report having been forced to lay off staff.   Funding cuts have also affected humanitarian programmes for persons with disabilities, with 81 per cent reporting an impact on the delivery of assistance to address basic needs and 95 per cent reporting an impact on work to address barriers faced by persons with disabilities to access humanitarian assistance.   The risk of preventable disease and mortality has risen as health and water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) are curtailed.   In Syria, hospitals serving over 200,000 people in Deir ez-Zor are at risk of closing in 2025 and over 170 health facilities in the north-west of the country risk running out of funds. In Somalia, over a quarter of one NGO’s health and nutrition facilities will stop services in June 2025, affecting at least 55,000 children.   In the DRC, 100,000 children are projected to miss out on measles vaccination in 2026 alone. In Afghanistan, approximately 420 health facilities have closed, denying three million people access to primary health care.   In Sudan nearly 190,000 refugees and host households in White Nile, Kordofan and parts of Darfur risk losing access to WASH services, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition and protection violations, particularly for women and children.   Funding cuts for women-led organizations have hit gender-based violence prevention and protection efforts hardest. In the DRC, underfunding—combined with an upsurge in violence—means that 250,000 children will miss out on GBV prevention. In Yemen, funding suspensions have already forced 22 safe spaces to close, denying services and support to women and girls.   Services for refugees are being jeopardized. In Rwanda, under the DRC regional refugee plan, cash assistance for food decreased by 50 per cent. In Uganda, vulnerable refugees (82 per cent of the settlement refugee population) have had their food rations reduced to approximately a quarter of the full amount.   In Lebanon, tens of thousands of vulnerable families risk being left without cash assistance to meet their basic needs. In Hungary, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can no longer enroll any new refugees with severe disabilities into the cash support programme.   As of 10 June 2025, only 12 per cent of funding required under the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview has been received. Without urgent additional support and financial backing, humanitarian partners will be unable to reach even people with the most life-threatening needs.   And yet, this devastating underfunding of humanitarian action comes amid an exponential rise in military expenditure. In 2024, military expenditure reached over $2.7 trillion; more than 100 times the amount galvanized for humanitarian appeals globally ($24.91 billion). This was the steepest year-on-year rise in military expenditure since at least the end of the Cold War.   * USAID’s demise comes a staggering human cost. The Lancet medical journal has published a study finding that more than 14 million people — a third of them children — will die by 2030 if current U.S. foreign aid cuts remain in place:   http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01186-9/fulltext http://www.wfp.org/publications/food-security-impact-reduction-wfp-funding   May 2025   Millions will die from aid funding cuts, says UN aid chief. (UN News)   Lifesaving operations everywhere continue to be shut down by sweeping funding cutbacks which will result in millions of people dying, the UN’s top aid official said on Wednesday.   “Cutting funding for those in greatest need is not something to boast about...the impact of aid cuts is that millions die,” warned UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.   Speaking from an overcrowded hospital in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan where three or four patients have to share a bed, Mr. Fletcher warned that the financial crisis has already forced UN aid teams to close 400 primary health centres across the country so far.   His warning echoes dire announcements of drastic forced cost-cutting measures in response to chronic – and now acute – funding shortfalls, including an end to aid programmes by numerous UN relief agencies. These include the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN aid coordination office (OCHA), the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and UNAIDS.   The reality of funding cuts continues to play out in its hospitals “where you can see doctors making the most horrific decisions about which lives to save and which lives not to save”, Mr. Fletcher said at Mirwais Regional Hospital.   In an interview with reporters U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply troubled by the drastic funding reduction.”   “The heads of our humanitarian agencies are being forced to take impossibly painful decisions as budget cuts have an immediate and often deadly impact on the world’s most vulnerable,” Dujarric said. “We understand the pressures on national budgets faced by governments, but these cuts come at a time when military spending again hits record levels.” (SIPRI 2024 Military spending: $2.7 trillon. U.S.$997 billion)   http://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/04/105810/millions-will-die-funding-cuts-says-un-aid-chief http://humanitarianaction.info/document/us-funding-freeze-global-survey http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/acute-food-insecurity-and-malnutrition-rise-sixth-consecutive-year-worlds-most http://www.fsinplatform.org/report/global-report-food-crises-2025/ http://tinyurl.com/3xtab3yy http://www.rescue.org/13-countries-impacted-aid-cuts http://www.rescue.org/article/how-are-aid-cuts-impacting-child-vaccines-ircs-critical-response   (AP) — Several U.N. agencies that provide aid to children and other vulnerable people around the world are being forced to dramatically reduce their programs, with officials pointing to funding reductions mainly from the United States and warning that vital humanitarian relief programs will be severely affected as a result.   The U.N. children’s agency projects that its funding will be at least 20% less in 2025 compared with 2024. The U.N. World Food Program is expected to be forced to cut up to 30% of its staff. The head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it would be forced to reduce costs by 30%.   The International Organization for Migration said it had been hit by a 30% decrease in funding for the year, mainly because of U.S. cuts. It said it was ending programs that affect 6,000 personnel.   The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, also announced this month that it is cutting its 2,600 staff who operate in more than 60 countries by 20% because of “brutal cuts” in funding that have left it with a nearly $60 million shortfall.   In a letter to staff, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher didn’t say which country was responsible for the cuts but indicated it was the United States.   The World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian organization, received nearly half of its funding from the United States in 2024. Asked about the planned cuts, the organization said in a statement that WFP will prioritize its limited resources on vital programs that bring urgently needed food assistance to the 343 million people struggling with hunger and increasingly facing starvation.”   The WFP said the cuts will “impact all geographies, divisions and levels” in the agency.   “Hard-earned gains and future progress for children are at risk because of a global funding crisis in which some donors are sharply decreasing their financial support to UNICEF and our partners, as well as their contributions to international aid more broadly,” UNICEF said in a statement.   The U.N.’s top refugee agency provides help to some 43.7 million refugees worldwide, along with others among the 122 million people driven from their homes by conflicts and natural disasters.   “The impact of this funding cut back on refugees’ lives and those displaced is already devastating and will get far worse,” the agency said. Programs providing food, clean water, medicines, emergency shelter and other services “will reduce or stop.”   * The Forbes 2024 Billionaires list reports 2,781 people holding combined assets of $14.2 trillion. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports global military spending of over $2700 billion in 2024.   Apr. 2025   InterAction, the leading alliance of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and partners in the United States, issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s latest terminations of life-saving foreign assistance awards.   InterAction strongly condemns the latest wave of terminations of humanitarian life-saving grants.   “This sudden withdrawal of vital humanitarian support will have devastating consequences for millions of people,” said Tom Hart, President and CEO of InterAction. “These cancellations cut off life-saving food, water, shelter, and medical services to women, children, and families in countries like Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan.”   “We call on the administration to reverse these decisions and collaborate with implementing NGOs on a responsible approach to life-saving assistance,” added Hart. “We also urge Congress to assert its oversight authority to ensure America’s humanitarian commitments are fulfilled.”   http://www.interaction.org/statement/statement-on-the-latest-wave-of-foreign-assistance-terminations/ http://www.unicefusa.org/press/statement-unicef-usa-president-and-ceo-michael-j-nyenhuis-vote-approving-proposed-rescissions http://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/as-u-s-foreign-aid-drops-united-nations-agencies-that-provide-aid-worldwide-slash-jobs-or-cut-costs http://www.wfp.org/news/tens-millions-risk-extreme-hunger-and-starvation-unprecedented-funding-crisis-spirals http://reliefweb.int/report/world/food-security-impact-reduction-wfp-funding http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-globalforeign-aid-reductions http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/least-14-million-children-face-disruptions-critical-nutrition-services-2025-unicef http://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-facing-extreme-hunger-crisis-put-risk-aid-cuts-clinics-close http://alliancecpha.org/en/brief-global-impact-funding-cuts-children   http://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/trump-administration-plan-for-future-of-foreign-aid-will-cause-further-suffering-oxfam/ http://www.acaps.org/en/us-funding-freeze http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-funding-crunch-increases-risks-violence-danger-and-death-refugees http://www.msf.org/after-first-100-days-us-aid-budget-cuts http://www.who.int/publications/m/item/the-impact-of-suspensions-and-reductions-in-health-official-development-assistance-on-health-systems http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01191-z http://www.icvanetwork.org/90-day-suspension-order-resources/ http://www.icvanetwork.org/uploads/2025/03/Lives-on-the-Line-Final-Report.pdf http://www.unocha.org/news/not-drill-aid-cuts-risk-costing-lives http://unocha.medium.com/this-is-not-a-drill-lives-are-already-being-lost-c8e965f94590   Apr. 2025   Tens of millions at risk of extreme hunger and starvation as unprecedented funding crisis spirals.   The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that 58 million people risk losing life-saving assistance in the agency’s 28 most critical crisis response operations unless new funding is received urgently.   Despite the generosity of many governments and individual donors, WFP is experiencing a steep decline in funding across its major donors. The severity of these cuts, combined with record levels of people in need, have led to an unprecedented crisis for tens of millions across the globe reliant on food aid.   Right now, the organization is facing an alarming 40 percent drop in funding for 2025, as compared to last year. This is having severe repercussions for its food aid efforts globally, particularly emergency feeding programmes that support the most vulnerable.   “WFP is prioritizing countries with the greatest needs and stretching food rations at the frontlines. While we are doing everything possible to reduce operational costs, make no mistake, we are facing a funding cliff with life-threatening consequences,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships. “Emergency feeding programmes not only save lives and alleviate human suffering, they bring greatly needed stability to fragile communities, which can spiral downwards when faced with extreme hunger.”   Today, global hunger is skyrocketing as 343 million people face severe food insecurity, driven by an unrelenting wave of global crises including conflict, economic instability, and climate-related emergencies.   In 2025, WFP’s operations are focused on supporting just over one-third of those in need - roughly 123 million of the world’s hungriest people - nearly half of whom (58 million) are at imminent risk of losing access to food assistance.   Last year, WFP teams helped feed more than 120 million people in 80 countries, delivering urgent food aid to hunger hot spots and frontline crises around the world.   As WFP works to quickly adapt its operations to current low funding levels, it is alerting donors that its 28 most critical crisis response operations are facing severe funding constraints and dangerously low food supplies through August.   The 28 programmes span: Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, South Sudan, Chad, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Uganda, Niger, Burkina Faso, DRC, Yemen, Mali, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Ukraine, Malawi, Burundi, Ethiopia, Palestine, Central African Republic, Jordan, and Egypt.   Below are a few examples of these programmes.   Sudan: WFP requires nearly US$570 million to support over 7 million people per month in Sudan where a looming pipeline break will hit in April. Famine was first confirmed in Zamzam camp near the embattled city of El Fasher and has since spread to 10 areas across North Darfur and the Western Nuba mountains. In Sudan 24.6 million people do not have enough to eat.   Delays in funding to deliver emergency food assistance, emergency nutrition and emergency logistics will cut a vital lifeline for millions with immediate and devastating consequences for vulnerable populations, who in many cases are just one step away from starvation.   Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): WFP requires US$399 million to feed 6.4 million as escalating violence by militia groups in the east has already displaced more than a million people. Food and nutrition assistance across the DRC is vital to stabilize the region and reach the most vulnerable who have already been displaced by conflict multiple times.   Palestine: WFP emergency response requires approximately US$265 million over the next six months to provide support to nearly 1.4 million people in Gaza and the West Bank.   The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains critical with over 2 million people fully dependent on food assistance – most of them displaced, without shelter and income.   Syria: WFP requires US$140 million to provide food and nutrition assistance to 1.2 million people every month. Without new funding, WFP faces a pipeline break in August which would cut off food assistance to one million of the most severely food-insecure individuals.   Lebanon: WFP requires US$162 million to feed 1.4 million people as severe funding shortfalls are already disrupting food assistance to vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugees – fostering instability and heightened social tensions. With an ongoing economic crisis in Lebanon, food insecurity continues to rise with one in three already facing acute hunger.   South Sudan: WFP requires US$281 million to provide food and nutrition assistance to 2.3 million people escaping war, climate extremes, and an economic disaster - plunging them into a severe hunger crisis. South Sudan has also seen more than one million people arrive, fleeing from the war in Sudan. Nearly two-thirds of the people in South Sudan are acutely food insecure.   Myanmar: WFP requires US$60 million to provide life-saving food assistance to 1.2 million people. Without immediate new funding a pipeline break in April will cut off one million from all support. Increased conflict, displacement and access restrictions are already sharply driving up food aid needs as the lean season is expected to begin in July when food shortages hit hardest.   Haiti: WFP requires US$10 million to feed 1.3 million as brutal violence by armed groups has caused record levels of hunger and displacement. Half the population is facing extreme hunger and a quarter of the children under the age of five are stunted.   More than a million people have been forced from their homes, including a record 60,000 in just one month this year. WFP has been providing assistance to displaced people, but without new funding, lifesaving assistance may be suspended in the coming weeks.   Sahel and Lake Chad Basin: WFP requires US$570 million to reach 5 million people with life-saving food and nutrition assistance. Millions of the most vulnerable people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Nigeria are in need of emergency support with five million people risking losing critical support from WFP in the months ahead.   * The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.   http://www.wfp.org/news/tens-millions-risk-extreme-hunger-and-starvation-unprecedented-funding-crisis-spirals http://www.wfp.org/news/persistent-violence-and-displacement-lead-record-hunger-haiti-needs-skyrocket http://www.wfp.org/news/conflict-and-rising-food-prices-drive-congolese-one-worlds-worst-food-crises-according-new-ipc http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-calls-urgent-access-preposition-food-sudan-rainy-season-risks-cutting-roads-starving http://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/two-years-since-the-start-of-the-conflict-sudan-is-facing/en http://www.wfp.org/stories/people-south-sudan-deserve-freedom-prisons-conflict-and-hunger http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-warns-rising-hunger-and-malnutrition-ethiopia-humanitarian-needs-outpace-resources http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-calls-urgent-investment-prevent-child-wasting-leaders-convene-nutrition-growth-summit http://www.ipcinfo.org/ http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity-november-2024-may-2025-outlook http://www.fao.org/giews/country-analysis/external-assistance/en/ http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-2025-global-outlook http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2025   Mar. 2025   Many will die because of humanitarian funding cuts. (UN News, agencies)   The UN’s top humanitarian relief official has warned that the global humanitarian system has reached breaking point, with funding cuts forcing life-or-death decisions over which desperately needed aid programmes to sustain and which to shut down.   Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters at a briefing that the current crisis was the most severe challenge to international humanitarian work since World War II.   “We were already overstretched, under resourced and literally under attack, with last year being the deadliest year on record to be a humanitarian worker. But it is far tougher for the over 300 million plus people who we serve,” he said.   “The pace and scale of the funding cuts are a seismic shock to the sector … many will die because aid is drying up. Right now, programmes are shutting down, staff are being laid off, and we are being forced to choose which lives to prioritise.”   Humanitarian crises are unfolding against a backdrop of instability, rising conflicts, climate shocks and economic downturns that have left millions in need of assistance. However, rather than an increase in support, the UN and its humanitarian partners are facing deep funding shortfalls.   Mr. Fletcher revealed that in February alone, 10 percent of humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) workers were laid off due to funding gaps, while UN agencies are being forced to scale back life-saving operations across multiple countries.   “For the people we serve, these cuts are not abstract budget numbers – they are a matter of survival,” he stressed.   Mr. Fletcher said UN humanitarian country teams were prioritizing existing funding for local and national organizations, those closest to the crises so they can have more impact over the distribution of the limited resources. He acknowledged that many decisions will be painful, as vital programmes will be cut due to the dramtic shortfall in available resources.   “Our mission remains clear: to save as many lives as we can with the resources we have,” Mr. Fletcher said.   The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said its aid provision in Somalia is being reduced, after last month’s estimate that 4.4 million people in the east African nation will be pushed into malnutrition from April because of drought, global inflation and conflict. This follows the WFP halving food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and a similar cut in rations for refugees in Kenya   Elizabeth Campbell, director of ODI Global said the cuts “will mean high malnutrition rates, starvation and death”.   “The United States was by far the biggest global humanitarian donor, especially to the food sector, outstripping almost all other donors combined,” she said. “There is no other donor or group of donors who can fill that void, certainly not in the short term.”   The world had 281.1 million people facing high levels of severe food insecurity in 2023, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) most recent report, but the “stop work” orders issued by the US government in January have pushed millions more into hunger.   Rein Paulsen, FAO’s emergencies director, said food aid was now being directed to only a limited number of the most extreme immediate cases. “About 200 million people in severe need are left behind,” he said. “The support being provided is focused on the very short term, aimed at keeping people alive for the coming weeks or months.”   Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera, head of nutrition for Action Against Hunger, said the aid sector was in “emergency mode” to feed people in crisis, after setbacks from Covid, a series of conflicts and the climate crisis.   Meg Sattler, of Ground Truth Solutions, which surveys recipients of aid, said malnourished children in Somalia were now dying as a result of funding cutbacks. She said her organisation had documented aid deliveries stopping in Darfur – the worst-hit region of Sudan’s civil war – and families having the cash payments they relied on stopped. “The reality is people are dying and they’re going to continue dying,” said Sattler.   Feb. 2025   Trump administration says it’s cutting 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts. (AP)   The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad. The cuts detailed by the administration leave few surviving USAID projects remaining. The funding freeze has stopped thousands of U.S.-funded programs abroad, and has led to mass firings.   Successful USAID programs credited with containing outbreaks of Ebola and other threats and saving more than 20 million lives in Africa through HIV and AIDS treatment are among those cut off from agency funds, USAID officials and officials with partner organizations say.   In all, the Trump administration said it will eliminate 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contract awards, for a cut of $54 billion. Another 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants were being eliminated, for a cut of $4.4 billion..   http://www.interaction.org/statement/60-ngos-respond-to-terminations-of-life-saving-programs/ http://www.interaction.org/statement/interaction-statement-on-terminations-of-thousands-of-foreign-assistance-programs http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-global-foreign-aid-reductions http://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-facing-extreme-hunger-crisis-put-risk-aid-cuts-clinics-close http://www.rescue.org/article/united-states-terminates-thousands-aid-programs http://www.rescue.org/article/what-humanitarian-aid-and-why-it-important http://www.mercycorps.org/blog/human-cost-of-foreign-aid-cuts http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/february/nrc-forced-to-suspend-even-lifesaving-us-funded-aid-this-week http://globalprotectioncluster.org/publications/2208/reports/report/gpc-funding-analysis-and-protection-risks-understanding-link-and   Feb. 2025   Critical supplies of life-saving medicines have been blocked and children left without food and battling malnutrition as multiple effects were reported across the globe after the Trump administration moved to shut down the US government’s pre-eminent international aid agency US Aid.   Chaotic scenes were seen in scores of countries as aid organisations warned of the risk of escalating disease and famine along with disastrous repercussions in areas such as family planning and girls’ education, after President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze funding to USAid.   Countless aid organisations have been forced to close down or lay off staff. The impact on the global aid sector has been profound and immediate. US foreign aid accounts for four out of every $10 spent globally on humanitarian aid.   The initial repercussions include the abandonment in warehouses of supplies of crucial drugs in Sudan, the site of what is currently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where recent fighting in the east has further destabilised the fragile region.   Across Africa, hundreds of thousands of children who rely on school meals have been left without sustenance. In Bangladesh, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, which coordinates pioneering research into one of the most prolific killers of children, has laid off some of the world’s most respected scientists working on malaria programmes.   In Africa, malaria-control programmes in Uganda have been forced to adopt equally draconian measures with reports that dozens of vital projects for frontline care have been closed.   Farther south in Malawi, where many rely on donor-funded programmes for survival, fears are mounting that the aid freeze could redraw the country’s entire economy.   Within farming communities – the backbone of Malawi’s economy – Mike Dansa, chair of the Nsanje Civil Society Organisati­on, warned it would upend agricultural aid programmes that support smallholders with improved seeds, irrigation and climate-resilience projects, threatening food security in a country reeling from extreme weather events.   In Johannesburg, projects that have relied for more than 20 years on funding from the US HIV/Aids response programme, known as Pepfar, have had to lock their doors.   Across the Atlantic, similar scenes of chaos were playing out. In Colombia, which has been plagued by six decades of internal conflict and violence, large numbers of organisations rely on USAid funding.   Programmes providing emergency relief to families fleeing violence between armed groups and encouraging farmers to swap coca – the base ingredient of cocaine – for legal alternatives have ceased operating.   Colombia’s former president and Nobel peace prize laureate, Juan Manuel Santos, told reporters: “I have seen the massive benefit these programmes funded by USAid have generated for people across the country. To cut it, suddenly, is going to have a terrible humanitarian effect.”   Elsewhere, the director of a major international aid organisation in Colombia – who also requested anonymity – feared the impact on those who most needed help.   “The people who this is going to affect the most are those already without a safety net. Precisely those who are least able to find another source of food, shelter or income,” they said.   “Without naming countries or areas, we have had to close life-saving services, for children with acute malnutrition, and also testing and treatment sites for health facilities, nutrition facilities and wash facilities,” said one aid worker.   Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former senior official at USAid, described the closure of the agency as posing an existential threat to the humanitarian sector.   “If this goes forward, it really is an extinction-level event for the global aid sector in the US and for much of the global relief and development sector around the world.”   Konyndyk added that it would also “destabilise” budgets of many large aid and United Nations organisations around the world. “It threatens really the collapse not just of what USAid does, but of this huge ecosystem of relief and development organisations that are doing good around the world every day,” he said.   Elsewhere, concern over the fate of the humanitarian sector was laid bare in a survey of 342 international development organisations, which concluded that without US funding, more than half were likely to close by May.   http://www.icvanetwork.org/uploads/2025/02/Impact-of-US-Funding-Suspension-Survey-Results-ICVA.pdf   Feb. 2025   US Aid funding pause leaves millions ‘in jeopardy’, insist UN humanitarians. (UN News)   UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that severe cuts to humanitarian and development funding by the United States will have devastating consequences for millions of vulnerable people worldwide.   “These cuts impact a wide range of critical programmes,” he told reporters, highlighting the disruption to lifesaving humanitarian work and development projects.   The cuts come at a time when global crises are intensifying, leaving millions at risk of hunger, disease and displacement, he said. “The consequences will be especially devastating for vulnerable people around the world,” Mr. Guterres said.   Beyond direct humanitarian relief, the cuts will also severely affect global health and security efforts. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will be forced to halt many counter-narcotics operations, including those targeting the fentanyl crisis and dramatically scale back its activities against human trafficking. “And funding for many programmes combatting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and cholera have stopped,” Mr. Guterres said.   The Secretary-General urged the US Government to reconsider the funding cuts, warning that reducing America’s humanitarian role would have far-reaching consequences, not only for those in need but also for global stability.   “Going through with these cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous,” he said, stating that UN agencies stand ready to provide the necessary information and justification for its projects.   Mr. Guterres said the UN would continue to do everything possible to provide lifesaving assistance. “Our absolute priority remains clear. We will do everything we can to provide life-saving aid to those in urgent need,” he said.   Pio Smith from the UN Population Fund said that in response to the executive order, UNFPA “has suspended services funded by US grants that provide a lifeline for women and girls in crises”.   The UN aid coordination agency OCHA, spokesperson Jens Laerke said the US Government funded around 47 per cent of the global humanitarian appeal across the world last year; “that gives you an indication of how much it matters when we are in the situation we are in right now, with the advice we’re getting from the US Government”.   The move follows the announcement that the new US administration has placed the country’s principal overseas development agency, USAID, under the authority of the Secretary of State.   Staff from the agency have been locked out of their offices, while the head of the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk.   Amid uncertainty about future US funding, UNFPA’s Mr. Smith underscored the immediate impact on at-risk individuals in the world’s poorest settings: “Women give birth alone in unsanitary conditions; the risk of obstetric fistula is heightened, newborns die from preventable causes; survivors of gender-based violence have nowhere to turn for medical support,” he said.   “We hope that the US Government will retain its position as a global leader in development and continue to work with UNFPA to alleviate the suffering of women and their families as a result of catastrophes they did not cause.”   UNFPA works across the world including in Afghanistan, where more than nine million people are expected to lose access to health and protection services because of the US funding crisis, it said.   This will impact nearly 600 mobile health teams, family health houses and counselling centres, whose work will be suspended, Mr. Smith explained.   “Every two hours, a mother dies from preventable pregnancy complications, making Afghanistan one of the deadliest countries in the world for women to give birth. Without UNFPA’s support, even more lives will be lost at a time when the rights of Afghan women and girls are already being torn to pieces.”   In Pakistan, the UN agency warns that the US announcement will affect 1.7 million people, including 1.2 million Afghan refugees, who will be cut off from lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services, with the closure of over 60 health facilities.   In Bangladesh, nearly 600,000 people, including Rohingya refugees, face losing access to critical maternal and reproductive health services.   “This is not about statistics. This is about real lives. These are literally the world’s most vulnerable people,” Mr. Smith insisted. In Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar refugee camp complex –where more than one million Rohingya refugees remain trapped in dire conditions – nearly half of all births now take place in health facilities, with UNFPA’s support.   http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2025 http://www.nrc.no/news/2024/december/alarming-gap-in-humanitarian-assistance--millions-will-receive-no-support/ http://asiapacific.unfpa.org/en/news/unfpas-work-supporting-vulnerable-women-and-girls-south-asia http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160631 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160646   Feb. 2025   Caritas strongly condemns the reckless decision by the U.S. Administration to abruptly close USAID funded programmes and offices worldwide.   Caritas recognizes the right of any new administration to review its foreign aid strategy. However, the ruthless and chaotic way this callous decision is being implemented threatens the lives and dignity of millions. Stopping USAID will jeopardise essential services for hundreds of millions of people, undermine decades of progress in humanitarian and development assistance, destabilise regions that rely on this critical support, and condemn millions to dehumanizing poverty or even death.   For over six decades, USAID has been a vital partner of Caritas and the Church globally, supporting vulnerable communities worldwide, providing lifesaving assistance for people affected by crises, alleviating hunger, delivering basic healthcare and education, improving access to clean water, sanitation, shelter and protection, and addressing the root causes of poverty. Its contributions have been paramount, fostering stability and development across many regions for decades.   Alistair Dutton, Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis, noted:   “Stopping USAID abruptly will kill millions of people and condemn hundreds of millions more to lives of dehumanising poverty. This is an inhumane affront to people’s God-given human dignity, that will cause immense suffering. Killing USAID also presents massive challenges for all of us in the global humanitarian community, who will have to completely reassess whom we can continue to serve and how.”   “Our immediate focus is working collaboratively with our partners and allies globally to reduce the impact of the freeze and ensure continued support for as many vulnerable people as we can. The lives and dignity of millions hang in the balance. We call on governments, international agencies, and stakeholders to speak out and strongly urge the U.S. Administration to reverse these dangerous measures.”   The ramifications of this decision extend far beyond U.S. borders. With USAID accounting for approximately 40% of the total global aid budget, the disruption will have catastrophic consequences worldwide. Direct recipients of USAID funds, secondary beneficiaries, UN agencies, and multilateral organisations, as well as national governments reliant on bilateral aid, all face severe operational setbacks. The resulting harm to people, particularly the poorest all around the world will be catastrophic, threatening the lives and dignity of millions".   http://www.caritas.org/2025/02/closure-of-usaid-foreign-aid-will-kill-millions/   Feb. 2025   ACT Alliance statement of concern over US administration policies’ impacts on humanitarian aid   As a Christian-based and rights-based coalition, the ACT Alliance is deeply concerned about the profound humanitarian consequences that may result from recent decisions by the United States administration severely limiting the ability of organizations around the world to continue to provide life-saving assistance to vulnerable individuals and families.   The ACT Alliance stands in solidarity with our members in the United States and around the world whose programs and standing have been affected by actions and narratives shared by the new administration. These sweeping and harmful policy decisions have significantly limited many of our members’ ability to maintain programs and serve vulnerable families who need critical services. These actions undermine the values of mercy, compassion, solidarity, inclusion, respect, and justice, which guide our mission and commitment to the most marginalized communities.   As people of faith, we believe in the moral imperative to care for those on the margins – mothers, children, people with disabilities, refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and all who face systemic injustices. Foreign assistance has always been a testament to shared humanity; abrupt funding cuts threaten the ability of international and local NGOs to sustain essential services. The recent measures have life-and-death consequences for countless individuals. These shifts also reflect global trends in reductions of foreign assistance to respond to today’s humanitarian challenges.   We stand firm in our belief that together, through faith and rights-based action, we can build a world that upholds and protects the dignity and worth of every human being.   http://actalliance.org/act-news/act-general-secretary-statement-of-concern-over-us-administration-policies-impacts-on-humanitarian-aid/   State Department freezes funding for nearly all US aid programs worldwide. (25 Jan.)   The US State Department has issued a halt to nearly all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid. The notice calls for a 90-day pause in all foreign development assistance programmes. The United States is the world's biggest international aid donor.   Dave Harden, a former US Agency of International Aid (USAID) mission director, told the BBC the move was "very significant", saying it could see humanitarian and development programmes funded by the US around the world being suspended. He said it could affect a wide range of critical development projects.   Suspending funding “could have life or death consequences” for children and families around the world, said Abby Maxman, head of Oxfam America.   “By suspending foreign development assistance, the Trump administration is threatening the lives and futures of communities in crisis, and abandoning the United States’ long-held bipartisan approach to foreign assistance which supports people based on need, regardless of politics,” Maxman said in a statement.   At the United Nations, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said: “These are bilateral decisions but nonetheless we expect those nations who have the capability to generously fund development assistance".   InterAction, the leading alliance of U.S. international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said America’s humanitarian and development organizations work tirelessly to save lives.   "The recent stop-work cable from the State Department interrupts critical life-saving work including clean water to infants, basic education for kids, ending the trafficking of girls, and providing medications to children and others suffering from disease".   The National Council of the Churches in the USA (NCC) said it was “alarmed by the freeze on federal funding for aid programs providing assistance and support to millions of vulnerable people around the world.. NCC strongly urges the Trump Administration to immediately rescind the Order.. Humanitarian groups are already experiencing significant negative impacts. We pray for a swift reversal of this decision”.   UN Secretary-General calls on US to exempt humanitarian funds from aid ‘pause’.   “The United Nations Secretary-General notes with concern the announcement of a pause in US foreign assistance”. “The Secretary-General calls for additional exemptions to be considered to ensure the continued delivery of critical development and humanitarian activities for the most vulnerable communities around the world, whose lives and livelihoods depend on this support:   http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1159486   * Assessing the Impact of Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze, interview with former senior USAid official Jeremy Konyndyk who now heads Refugees International. (Global Dispatches podcast):   http://www.globaldispatches.org/p/assessing-the-impact-of-trumps-foreign   28 Jan. 2025   UN Agencies, Charities reel from US Aid freeze warn of ‘life or death’ effects.   News agencies report UN agencies have begun cutting back their global aid operations following the 90-day suspension of all foreign assistance ordered by the Trump administration.   Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, responsible for providing life-saving assistance to the 122 million people forcibly displaced from their homes across 136 countries, said the majority of UN agencies and other international aid organisations have been affected. Around the world, humanitarian assistance programmes have been forced to fire staff and slow down or stop operations following the unprecedented US funding suspension ordered by Trump.   The US provided $2.49bn in funding to the UNHCR, according to the latest figures for 2024 – a fifth of the agency’s total budget.   Clinics in Uganda are scrambling to find new sources for vital HIV drugs, aid workers in Bangladesh fear refugee camp infrastructure will crumble, and mobile health units may have to stop treating civilians near the frontline in Ukraine. Services worldwide have been thrown into disarray by President Donald Trump’s executive order.   The US president’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) is included in the order. It provides antiretrovirals to 20 million people with HIV globally, and funds test kits and preventive medicine supplies for millions more. Already, clinics worldwide are reporting that supplies have been halted.   “This is a matter of life or death,” said Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International Aids Society, adding that stopping Pepfar would be disastrous. “If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.”   The One campaign estimated that nearly 3 million children could be at higher risk of malaria if the president’s malaria initiative paused work for 90 days.   The Secretary General of The Danish Refugee Council; “The latest figures indicate that 60 per cent of global funding for humanitarian response remained unmet. Disrupting or cutting off life-saving aid will have deadly consequences at a moment when humanitarian crises are multiplying, and the needs are greater than ever”.   Andriy Klepikov, executive director of the Alliance for Public Health in Ukraine, said: “Mobile integrated medical services to people in remote locations closely located to the frontline are impacted. We provide mobile medical services to people in the areas where there are no clinics, doctors or nurses. This is a very demanded and effective programme. “I hope Ukraine – being amid the war – will be able to continue such critical services.”   Thomas Byrnes, who runs a consulting firm specialising in the humanitarian sector, said the sudden stop-work orders would have a harsh, far-reaching impact because of the extent the global system relies on US funding. The US provides 42.3% of global aid funding, according to the UN, and as much as 54% of the World Food Programme’s funding.   Byrnes said the “unprecedented” freeze was “forcing organisations to halt programmes abruptly, leading to job losses and a reduction in essential services to vulnerable populations.”   http://www.interaction.org/statement/interaction-statement-on-recent-actions-impacting-usaid http://www.icvanetwork.org/90-day-suspension-orders/ http://www.icvanetwork.org/90-day-suspension-order-resources/ http://www.icvanetwork.org/the-humanitarian-imperative-must-come-first/ http://www.cgdev.org/blog/usaid-being-dismantled-when-world-needs-it-most   http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2025/february/20250201_us-funding http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/02/tanzanians-with-hiv-left-in-crisis-as-u-s-aid-ends/ http://www.msf.org/uncertainty-around-pepfar-programme-puts-millions-people-risk http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2025/01/pepfar-us-international-aid http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/february/nrc-forced-to-suspend-essential-aid-work-in-almost-20-countries http://www.npaid.org/mine-action-and-disarmament/news/all-of-npas-us-funded-activities-are-put-on-pause http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/28/charities-reeling-from-usaid-freeze-warn-of-life-or-death-effects   http://www.devex.com/news/i-don-t-think-anyone-can-survive-for-90-days-aid-s-grim-new-reality-109207 http://newrepublic.com/article/191063/death-usaid-trump-musk-lives http://www.saveusforeignassistance.net/ http://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-rubio-usaid-musk-death-toll-malaria-polio-tuberculosis http://www.propublica.org/topics/usaid http://www.cgdev.org/blog/no-90-percent-aid-not-skimmed-reaching-target-communities http://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2025/02/usaid-trump-foreign-aid-policy-why?lang=en   http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/freeze-us-foreign-aid-will-result-humanitarian-disaster http://www.crisisgroup.org/united-states/united-states/united-states-internal/us-aid-cuts-make-famine-more-likely-and-easier http://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/world/usaid-us-foreign-aid-freeze-humanitarian-crises-intl/index.html http://drc.ngo/resources/news/global-displacement-crisis-set-to-surge-by-6-7-million-people-due-to-ongoing-conflicts-and-civilian-attacks-new-drc-forecast/ http://www.dw.com/en/us-foreign-aid-freeze-sends-shock-waves-around-the-world/a-71478989   * The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports global military spending of over $2700 billion in 2024, U.S.$997 billion. The Forbes 2024 Billionaires list reports 2,781 people holding combined assets of $14.2 trillion. Visit the related web page
	All States must prioritise the adoption of a minimum living wage by OHCHR, UNRISD, HelpAge International, agencies   All States must prioritise the adoption of a minimum living wage so that workers are able to meet their basic needs and those of their family. (OHCHR)   To date, over one in five workers globally live in poverty despite being employed, and almost one in ten live in extreme poverty. Millions of workers continue to earn wages and incomes that are insufficient for a decent standard of living.   Women, particularly those in low-paid, informal and care-related sectors, are disproportionately represented among the working poor. This is unacceptable and a violation of international human rights laws.   We call for increased social development action, reaffirming global solidarity and ensuring that no one is left behind. This includes considering the gendered dimension of economic injustice and the need for gender-transformative policies.   We urge States to make concrete and ambitious commitments aimed at ensuring living wages for all workers within their jurisdictions. These commitments must also integrate gender equality, close the gender pay gap, and value paid and unpaid care work.   Living wages are not merely an economic concern, but a fundamental matter of human dignity and rights. They are an essential lever for the eradication of poverty as well as reduction of inequalities, and an essential part of the right to just and favourable conditions of work.   Living wages even serve as a powerful deterrent against contemporary forms of slavery by directly addressing one of its root causes – economic vulnerability.   Living wages play a crucial role in facilitating access to the rights to education, food, housing, development and social security by ensuring that individuals and families have the financial resources necessary to meet their basic needs.   They also contribute to creating a conducive environment for the respect by business of workers’ rights. Living wages advance women’s autonomy and bolster combatting gender-based risks and discrimination.   As required by the international human rights norms and standards, including Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States must close the critical gaps in minimum wage adequacy, enforcement, and coverage. States should guarantee a minimum wage in legislation, corresponding at least to a living wage, indexed on the cost of living.   They should ensure that labor inspectorates are equipped to enforce such legislation and they should extend this protection to informal workers. We also call on business enterprises to provide a living wage to workers across their value chains, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.   http://www.srpoverty.org/2025/04/04/joint-statement-all-states-must-prioritise-adoption-of-a-living-wage-ahead-of-the-second-world-summit-for-social-development/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2025/01/what-is-a-living-wage-and-why-is-it-a-human-rights-issue/ http://www.ituc-csi.org/wages http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2025/02/achieving-global-social-justice/   Paving the Road to the Second World Summit for Social Development. (UNRISD)   The UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) has launched a global consultation process to offer perspectives from different regions, sectors, and demographic groups on shaping more equitable and impactful social development policies.   In November 2025, the United Nations will convene the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) to address ongoing social challenges and renew commitments made in the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action. The second World Social Summit will also catalyze progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by reinvigorating its social pillar grounded in values of social justice, equality and inclusion.   http://www.unrisd.org/en/research/projects/second-world-summit-for-social-development http://www.unrisd.org/en/library/publications/rethinking-social-development-for-a-new-eco-social-contract-an-unrisd-contribution-to-the-second-wor http://www.unrisd.org/en/library/blog-posts/still-reaching-for-the-band-aid-vulnerability-risk-and-the-world-social-summit http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2025/06/second-world-summit-for-social-development-resources/ http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/ http://social.desa.un.org/world-summit-2025/blog http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/05/2025-world-social-summit-must-not-missed-opportunity/   Apr. 2025   UN: Treaty on Older People’s Rights moves forward - Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People   The United Nations Human Rights Council on April 3, 2025, began an intergovernmental process to draft an international human rights treaty on older people, Human Rights Watch said today. The consensus resolution is an important victory for human rights and multilateralism at a moment of increasing international uncertainty.   Older people around the world experience a wide range of human rights violations on a daily basis. They include violence and mistreatment; age-based discrimination; social, economic, and political exclusion; denial of access to care and support services; inadequate social security; exclusion from climate change responses; and abuses in armed conflict.   “The UN Human Rights Council’s decision to pursue an international treaty on the rights of older people is a landmark victory not just for older people, but for everyone,” said Bridget Sleap, senior researcher on the rights of older people at Human Rights Watch. “State support for this treaty is an important endorsement of the multilateral human rights system.”   Significant protection gaps for older people remain in the current international human rights framework. Years of advocacy by older people and civil society groups, notably the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP), led to this historic UN action. GAROP, a global network of more than 400 civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, has campaigned since 2011 to strengthen the rights and voice of older people all over the world.   In 2024, after 14 sessions, a dedicated UN Working Group on Ageing acknowledged existing gaps and highlighted the need to address them including through a new UN treaty, laying the foundation for the Human Rights Council’s action.   Older people and civil society organizations have engaged over more than a decade in UN processes, both in New York and Geneva, to gain support for a new international treaty.   A group of countries consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Gambia, the Philippines, and Slovenia, listened to older people and civil society, and pushed this initiative forward at the Human Rights Council, the UN’s preeminent human rights body.   The first meeting of the intergovernmental working group is scheduled to take place before the end of 2025. The working group, which all UN member countries may join, should now proceed quickly and ensure meaningful participation and engagement from stakeholders, especially older people and their representative organizations from all regions of the world.   “Human rights last a lifetime, and rights in older age should be guaranteed as at any other time in our lives,” Sleap said. “Ageism, age discrimination, and violation of older people’s rights demand the same degree of attention and protection in the international human rights system as any other rights abuses. The fruits of decades of discussions and advocacy have brought us here, but much work lies ahead.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/03/un-treaty-older-peoples-rights-moves-ahead http://rightsofolderpeople.org/9144-2/ http://rightsofolderpeople.org/hrc58-side-event/ http://rightsofolderpeople.org/portfolio-items/why-do-we-need-a-convention-for-older-people/ http://www.helpage.org/what-we-do/rights-of-older-people/un-convention-on-the-rights-of-older-people/ http://www.helpage.org/
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