UN scales back 2026 funding appeal amid record humanitarian needs

WEB DESK: Faced with a severe drop in donor funding, the United Nations has announced a 2026 global humanitarian appeal for USD23 billion, roughly half the amount it initially sought for the current year. This reduction comes at a time when the organization states global needs have reached unprecedented levels.

The UN acknowledges that this constrained budget will prevent life-saving assistance from reaching tens of millions of people in dire circumstances. Shrinking financial support has compelled aid agencies to focus resources solely on the most extreme emergencies.

These funding challenges compound existing operational difficulties, such as threats to staff safety in conflict areas and persistent barriers to reaching affected populations.

“Ultimately, it is these drastic cuts that are imposing these incredibly difficult and brutal decisions on us,” stated UN Aid Chief Tom Fletcher in a press briefing. “Our capacity is exhausted, our funding is insufficient, and our workers are in danger. We continue to respond on behalf of the global community, but we are now expected to achieve more with far less, while operating under fire.”

Last year, the UN requested approximately $47 billion for 2025. This target was later revised downward as the extent of aid reductions by major donors, including the United States under President Donald Trump and nations like Germany, became clear. Recent data from November reveals that only $12 billion has been secured for 2025—the lowest total in a decade, covering just over a quarter of the identified needs.

The $23 billion plan for 2026 targets 87 million individuals considered priority cases facing immediate threats to survival. However, the UN estimates that nearly 250 million people worldwide require urgent aid. The organization states that fully addressing the needs of 135 million of them would cost $33 billion, a target now deemed unattainable.

The largest single regional appeal, at USD4 billion, is for the occupied Palestinian territories. The majority is destined for Gaza, where a two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas has caused widespread devastation, displacing nearly all of its 2.3 million residents and making them reliant on humanitarian support. Sudan and Syria follow as the next largest appeals.

Fletcher warned that aid groups are confronting a dire outlook of increasing famine, disease outbreaks, and historic levels of violence. “This appeal is precisely targeted at preserving life in areas of greatest crisis: conflict zones, climate-induced disasters, earthquakes, epidemics, and agricultural collapse,” he explained.

UN humanitarian operations depend almost entirely on voluntary contributions from Western governments. Historically, the United States has been the largest single donor. UN figures confirm it retained that position in 2025 despite the Trump administration’s cuts, although its share of total funding fell from more than one-third to 15.6 percent this year.