UN cuts its aid appeal for 2026 despite soaring need

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 08 (APP): The United Nations and partner agencies are seeking $23 billion to provide lifesaving support next year to 87 million people worldwide affected by war, climate disasters, earthquakes, epidemics and crop failures.

The amount is about half of the $47 billion requested in 2025, a consequence of the drastic cuts by the United States and European governments to their foreign aid budgets.

Nominally, the U.N. and partner agencies are seeking $33 billion to reach 135 million victims of war and natural disasters in 2026 in its annual appeal to donor countries, but it has narrowed that fund-raising goal after failing to meet its targets for this year, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, told reporters in Geneva.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which he leads, tried to raise $47 billion for aid operations in 2025 but scaled down that appeal to $29 billion midyear. It has received only $12 billion in 2025.

“This appeal sets out where we need to focus our collective energy first: life by life,” Fletcher said.

The updated Global Humanitarian Overview 2026, launched on Monday, follows a year marked by brutal cuts to humanitarian operations and a record number of deadly attacks against aid workers.

It includes 29 detailed plans, and the largest is for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where $4.1 billion is needed to reach some three million people.

In Sudan, $2.9 billion is required to provide lifesaving aid to 20 million people caught in the world’s largest displacement crisis, with another $2 billion for the seven million Sudanese who have fled the country.

The largest of the regional plans is for Syria, at $2.8 billion for 8.6 million people.

Fletcher recalled that the 2025 appeal received only $12 billion – the lowest funding in a decade. As a result, humanitarians reached 25 million less people than during the previous year.

The consequences were immediate, including rising hunger and strained health systems – “even as famines hit parts of Sudan and Gaza,” he said at a press briefing prior to this year’s launch.

“Programmes to protect women and girls were slashed, hundreds of aid organizations shut. And over 380 aid workers were killed – the highest on record.”

The UN relief chief described humanitarians as “overstretched, underfunded and under attack” – something he has stressed on several occasions.

“Only 20 per cent of our appeals are supported. And we drive the ambulance towards the fire on your behalf,” he said.

“But we are also now being asked to put the fire out. And there is not enough water in the tank. And we are being shot at.”

Humanitarians will now take the appeal to UN Member States and ask for their backing.

This will happen over the next 87 days – “one for each of the million lives that we will set out to save,” he said.

Countries will also be urged to step up protection for humanitarians, “not with statements of concern, but by holding to account those killing us – and those arming those killing us,” he added.