UN cuts its aid appeal for 2026 despite soaring need

The United Nations appealed on Monday for a 2026 aid budget only half the size of what it had hoped for this year, acknowledging a plunge in donor funding at a time when humanitarian needs have never been greater.

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

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

UN IS MAKING 'TOUGH, TOUGH, BRUTAL CHOICES'

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

"We are overstretched, underfunded, and under attack," he said. "And we drive the ambulance towards the fire. On your behalf. But we are also now being asked to put the fire out. And there is not enough water in the tank. And we're being shot at."

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

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

Next year's $23 billion plan identifies 87 million people deemed as priority cases whose lives are on the line. Yet it says around a quarter of a billion people need urgent assistance, and that it will aim to help 135 million of them at a cost of $33 billion - if it has the means.

The biggest single appeal of $4 billion is for the occupied Palestinian territories. Most of that is for Gaza, devastated by the two-year Israel-Hamas conflict, which has left nearly all of its 2.3 million inhabitants homeless and dependent on aid.

Second is Sudan, followed by Syria.

STRETCHED HUMANITARIAN RESPONSES

The Norwegian Refugee Council, a major NGO operating in dozens of humanitarian crises, including Gaza and Sudan, said on Monday the funding limits would stretch humanitarian responses to their limit.

"We fear a lack of funding means that millions of people enduring crises in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Syria will not get aid," Maureen Magee, the Global Director of Field Operations for the NRC, said in a statement.

In addition to cuts faced by UN humanitarian agencies, the UN's International Organisation for Migration is also cutting back. In its 2026 Global Appeal on Monday, the organisation requested half the amount of money that it did the previous year.

It has asked for $4.7 billion to assist 41 million people having to leave their homes due to climate change or conflict, as well as helping them with their return. It said it has already secured $1.3 billion. Last year it asked for $8.2 billion to help 101 million people.

UN humanitarian agencies are for the most part reliant on voluntary donations by Western donors, with the United States by far the top historical donor.

UN data showed it still held the number one spot in 2025 despite Trump's cuts but that its share had shrunk from over a third of the total to 15.6% this year.