US pledges billions to UN humanitarian aid
The United States on Monday pledged billions of dollars in aid next year to tens of millions of people facing hunger and disease in more than a dozen countries; It’s a new mechanism for delivering life-saving aid following the Trump administration’s massive cuts in foreign aid, he said.
The United States has cut aid spending this year, and major Western donors such as Germany have also cut aid as they look to increase defense spending, leading to a severe funding shortage for the United Nations.
The State Department said on Monday that the $2 billion ($3 billion) in aid pledged by Washington would be overseen by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in what it described as a new aid model agreed with the UN that aims to make aid financing and distribution more efficient and increase accountability in the spending of funds.
UN data shows total US humanitarian contributions to the UN falling to approximately US$3.38 billion ($A5 billion) in 2025; This corresponds to approximately 14.8 percent of the global total. This is down sharply from US$14.1 billion ($21 billion) the previous year, peaking at US$17.2 billion ($25.6 billion) in 2022.
In a statement made in Geneva, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UN officials said that the USA and the United Nations will sign 17 memorandums of understanding with the countries determined by the USA as priority countries.
However, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said some areas that are a priority for the UN, including Yemen, Afghanistan and Gaza, will not receive US funding under the new mechanism, adding that the UN will seek support from other donors to fund them.
Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sudan are among the countries included in Monday’s package, the UN spokesman said.
But Lewin said Gaza, where aid agencies have repeatedly said much more aid is needed to reach the small and populous enclave, was not included in Monday’s announcement and would instead be addressed on a separate track.
The United States had approved more than $300 million ($447 million) after President Donald Trump’s administration helped broker a ceasefire in Gaza “to give pipelines to UN agencies,” he said, adding that the United States would seek to find additional donors for a joint mechanism under a separate track for Gaza under the second phase of the deal.
Donors will have “specific requirements” about which countries and what types of studies should be funded, Fletcher said.
“But humanitarian action at the other end of this must always be impartial, impartial and independent, and there is nothing in the work we do together in this partnership that undermines those principles,” he said.
Fletcher acknowledged it had been a difficult year for the UN following a series of cuts as humanitarian crises mounted in war-torn countries such as Sudan, but said he was optimistic following the US pledge.
“Millions of lives will be saved in 17 countries,” Fletcher said.
