Why humanitarian aid still matters in 2025 when the world turns away by Christian Modino Hok Humanitarian Director at Caritas Internationalis   Sep. 2025   Every year on World Humanitarian Day, we stop for a moment. To honour those who’ve lost their lives in service, and those who keep showing up, day after day, on the frontlines of crisis. It’s not about ceremony. Or applause. It’s about bearing witness to courage, and standing with those who choose compassion when everything around them is falling apart.   But this year feels different. Heavier. More fractured. The sorrow hits harder, not because the crises in Gaza, Sudan, the DRC, Ukraine, Myanmar, or Haiti are new. They’re not. But the violence… It’s escalated beyond what we thought possible. The brutality is deeper. The scale, honestly, staggering.   We’re not just watching suffering, we’re watching the slow unravelling of the very principles meant to protect civilians. International law is being tested in ways we haven’t seen before. The international humanitarian and human rights norms we rely on, against repression, abuse, and dehumanization, are being stretched to the breaking point.   And still, humanitarians show up. Often with barely any protection. Often with almost no resources. Because for them, this work isn’t symbolic, it’s survival. For the communities they serve, it’s the last lifeline.   On this day we honour the 248 humanitarians who lost their lives and 196 others wounded, kidnapped or detained so far in 2025 alone, 95% of them local workers, a disheartening record high and sobering reminder of the risks borne by those closest to the crisis.   This day is a reminder: we owe them more than recognition. We owe them action. We owe them systems that actually work, laws that actually hold, and solidarity that doesn’t vanish when the headlines fade.   The humanitarian system is being dismantled right in front of us. Gaza has become a death trap disguised as aid. Sudan’s warlords cut off relief while the world just watches. Haiti’s gangs run the show, and the international community shrugs. In the DRC, millions flee while donors quietly cut and run. Myanmar’s junta starves its own people, and no one stops them. Yemen bleeds out slowly, forgotten.   The International Criminal Court gets punished for chasing war criminals. The EU dithers and deflects. And the UN Security Council, paralyzed, vetoed into silence.   These aren’t just failures. They are choices. Governments are walking away from the laws they wrote. Institutions are either too compromised or too afraid to act. Civilians are left to die. Aid workers are left to pick up the pieces, with no protection, no funding, no backup.   The message is clear: the norms meant to protect civilians are being eroded. Without action, they won’t survive.   So on this day we remind ourselves that we need and have to keep fighting, to strengthen and protect what works and change what doesn’t.   Protect the humanitarian Principles: they aren’t abstract ideals, they’re the difference between life and death. Impartiality means aid goes where it’s needed, not where it’s politically convenient. That’s how trust is built. That’s how dignity is preserved. Neutrality isn’t passivity, it’s what allows access when diplomacy collapses. Humanity is the guiding force behind our every response: medics working under fire, counselors supporting survivors of sexual violence, volunteers reuniting families, staff distributing food to people who’ve lost everything.   These principles live through people. Real people. Doctors, nurses, social workers, community leaders, faith groups. Often unpaid. Often unrecognized. In places like Sudan, where entire communities have been displaced, it’s these individuals who stay, long after the spotlight fades.   But principles alone don’t feed families. Aid does. When it’s allowed in. When it’s funded properly. And aid isn’t charity. It’s infrastructure. It’s stability. When governments support principled humanitarian action, they’re not just doing the right thing, they’re investing in resilience, peace, and social cohesion.   We’ve seen it work. In South Sudan, aid helped avert famine and kept fragile peace talks alive. In Bangladesh, it stabilized the Rohingya crisis. In West Africa, it stopped Ebola from becoming a global catastrophe. In Syria and Türkiye, it prevented secondary displacement after earthquakes. In Ukraine, it’s helped preserve civil society under siege.   But the system is under strain. Conflicts are intensifying. Climate shocks are accelerating. Displacement is rising. And funding is falling. Governments are slashing aid budgets, forcing humanitarian actors to make impossible choices. The current model is struggling to keep up.   So yes, the sector has to adapt. And the calls for change both inside and outside the sector are getting louder. In 2025, global summits and consultations are demanding real reform, faster, bolder, more decisive. From simplifying coordination systems to prioritizing protection and securing more flexible funding, the agenda is packed. But one shift stands out: putting communities at the center of humanitarian response.   When local people lead, drawing on their knowledge, their networks, their trust, the results are faster, more cost-effective, and better aligned with long-term goals. It’s not just more efficient. It’s fairer. More dignified. And absolutely essential to closing the widening resource gap, with over $35 billion in unmet needs.   This is a moment for leadership. For recommitting to the principles that define humanitarian action. For investing in systems that protect lives and uphold dignity. Because in the end, humanitarian aid isn’t just about relief, it’s about resilience. Justice. Hope.   To governments around the world: this isn’t just a moral imperative. It’s a strategic investment. Humanitarian aid stabilizes fragile regions, prevents the spread of conflict, and lays the groundwork for recovery and peace. It reduces forced displacement, mitigates climate shocks, and strengthens civil society. Every dollar spent on principled aid today saves exponentially more in future military interventions, refugee crises, and economic fallout.   When humanitarian systems collapse, instability spreads. When communities are abandoned, extremism fills the void. When dignity is denied, trust erodes, and rebuilding it takes generations.   Investing in aid means investing in global security, economic stability, and human potential. It’s a commitment to a rules-based world where compassion isn’t weakness but strength.   Protect the principles. Help build a future where humanitarian action isn’t the last resort but the foundation.   And to anyone wondering if this work still matters, yes. It does. It’s a real expression of justice, solidarity, and humanity. Doing what’s fair isn’t just policy, it’s a promise. A promise to keep showing up, even when the world turns away.   http://www.caritas.org/2025/09/why-humanitarian-aid-still-matters-in-2025-when-the-world-turns-away/ Visit the related web page
	Foreign Aid cuts threaten human rights globally by OHCHR, NRC, MSF, Amnesty, agencies   Sep. 2025   Aid cuts are killing children every day and the death toll is accelerating, by Nicholas Kristof. (NYT)   The Trump administration has claimed that no one has died because of its cuts to humanitarian aid, and it is now trying to cancel an additional $4.9 billion in aid that Congress already approved. Yet what I find here in desperate villages in southwestern Uganda is that not only are aid cuts killing children every day, but that the death toll is accelerating.   Stockpiles of food and medicine are running out here. Village health workers who used to provide inexpensive preventive care have been laid off. Public health initiatives like deworming and vitamin A distribution have collapsed. Immunizations are being missed. Contraception is harder to get. Ordinary people are growing weaker, hungrier and more fragile.   So as months pass, the crisis is not easing but growing increasingly lethal — and because children are particularly vulnerable, they are often the first to starve and the first to die.   It’s difficult to know how many children are dying worldwide as a result of the Trump aid cuts, but credible estimates by experts suggest that the child death toll may be in the hundreds of thousands this year alone — and likely an even higher number next year. In short, President Trump’s cuts appear to be by far the most lethal policy step he has taken.   Some will think, at least this is saving taxpayers money. But hold on. I obtained a June 3 State Department memo, headed “sensitive but unclassified,” saying that the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion over two years. The memo, the subject of earlier reporting by Bloomberg Government, said the money is necessary to manage “litigation, claims, residual payments and closeout activities.”   That’s enough money to save more than one million children’s lives. Instead, it is being used to shut down programs that save lives.   Let me introduce Trump to the mothers of children that his cost-cutting has killed.   Valentine Tusifu, a 36-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is mourning her 10-year-old daughter, Jibia. The girl excelled in school here in Rwamwanja, ranking third out of 58 students in her fourth-grade class, and dreamed of becoming a nurse.   But the family had to pull Jibia out of school in May when the loss of American funding led to a mass firing of teachers. Jibia cried inconsolably, her mother recalled, as the girl became an elementary school dropout.   Then it got worse. The family’s mosquito nets developed holes, but with aid cuts, the health center had run out of new nets, so Jibia slept unprotected. She contracted malaria. Normally, a village health worker would have handed out an inexpensive medicine, but that system disintegrated along with aid budgets, and so did the supply of anti-malaria medication.   So Jibia’s mom took the girl, feverish and vomiting, to the local health center, but it, too, had run out of necessary medicines. Doctors say they tried to rush the girl to a regional hospital. But ambulances were unavailable because drivers had been laid off as a result of cuts in U.S. assistance.   By the time Jibia arrived at the hospital, the malaria had destroyed her red blood cells, leaving her urine dark with their residue, medical records show. A person normally has a hemoglobin level above 10; Jibia’s stood at just 2.9. So she desperately needed a blood transfusion, but Uganda’s blood transfusion program relied on American support and is now struggling. A transfusion was unavailable. So Jibia died on July 7.   “It was aid cuts,” her mom told me — without bitterness or any sense of entitlement, simply stating a fact that is obvious on the ground here. “People are dying every day and night.”   Indeed, one tangible consequence of Trump’s presidency is child-size graves being dug around the world. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that the aid cuts haven’t killed anyone, he should look up from his talking points and learn the truth.   The mortality rate for newborn babies has doubled this year in both the refugee settlements in Uganda I visited, Nakivale and Rwamwanja, according to Medical Teams International, which is trying to provide medical care despite the cuts. The upshot is that about three additional newborns are dying each week in Nakivale alone — and that is just one of 13 refugee settlements in Uganda facing similar problems.   One reason for the crisis here: The United States slashed humanitarian aid to refugees in Uganda, from more than $200 million in 2024 to $38 million so far in 2025, according to U.N. figures, even as the number of refugees has surged. More is said to be on the way, and that will help. But aid cuts have meant that 20,000 medical workers have lost their jobs in Uganda in the last few months. Globally, some 86 percent of U.S.A.I.D. contracts have been canceled, according to the Center for Global Development.   Estimates of the death toll from the Trump cuts vary. One online impact counter maintained by an infectious disease expert puts the total at 330,000 children and 160,000 adults so far.   A recent study published in The Lancet estimated that the cuts will cost the lives of about 690,000 children under the age of 5 in 2025, and 829,000 next year. The study estimated that some 3.1 million children under age 5 would die during Trump’s second term because of his cuts in humanitarian assistance. That amounts to 88 children dying each hour of Trump’s second term because of his aid policy.   In April and May, the World Food Program had to halt support for 63 percent of refugees in Uganda (and even the rest of the refugees now receive very little), the United Nations says. For the last few months, most have received nothing at all.   Elina Ndacyayisaba, 27, told me that her husband abandoned the family in May after the World Food Program assistance ended. With no food in the house, her 1-year-old son, John Abraham, began to fade away.   American aid cuts had made ambulance service unreliable, so she carried John for three hours to a health center. John was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition and dehydration, but doctors told me that the health center had run out of necessary supplies to help. John Abraham died on Aug. 7.   His mom is now eight months pregnant and caring for her three surviving children. It was afternoon when I interviewed her, and I asked her what she and her three children had eaten so far that day.   “Nothing,” she said. “What did you eat yesterday?” I asked. “Nothing,” she said. Two days earlier, she said a bit defensively, she and the children had each eaten several bananas that a neighbor had given them.   One of America’s proudest programs has been the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, founded by President George W. Bush with the strong backing of America’s evangelical Christians. It turned the tide of AIDS and has saved 26 million lives — but the Trump administration has withheld some of its funding, and the administration has developed a plan to wind it down.   Despite the claims of some administration officials that they are preserving PEPFAR, that’s not what I see on the ground. About 65 percent of PEPFAR awards have been canceled, and from South Sudan to Sierra Leone to Uganda, I find people getting sick and dying because of PEPFAR dysfunction — and this, too, seems likely to accelerate as people go without antiretroviral drugs and viral loads grow.   Pascaline Nkunda, 32, is a Congolese woman who was raped by soldiers and infected with H.I.V. She fled to Uganda and was able to get antiretrovirals through American aid — until April. Since then she has been unable to get the drugs, and the virus is gaining ground.   “I feel myself weakening,” she told me. She is terrified that she will be gone with no one to care for her five children.   Some AIDS medications also need to be taken with food, which is a problem for the starving population here even if H.I.V. patients can get the medicines. One woman, Denise Mukamusoni, confronted me on the dirt path as I passed her home; she wept as she explained that she was off her AIDS medication because she had no food to take it with. A doctor explained to me that with food and medicine simultaneously scarce because of the cuts, the winner is the virus.   Another reason the suffering is accelerating is that the cuts the United States imposed led other nations, including Britain, Germany, Sweden, and France, to slash assistance as well. One recent study estimated that less than half as much money will be spent on global health assistance this year as was spent in 2021.   I understand that some Americans don’t feel it is their job to save every impoverished person. But a bed net that would have saved Jibia costs $2. The antiretrovirals that keep Nkunda alive cost less than 12 cents a day. Do we really believe that the richest nation in the history of the world couldn’t afford a $2 net for Jibia?   The thoughtless and rushed way in which the U.S. Agency for International Development was fed “into the wood chipper,” as Elon Musk described his work, is resulting in children dying at a pace that appears to be accelerating.. What I found in Uganda is that the devastation is now beginning to hit with full force.   Uganda has been extraordinarily welcoming to nearly two million refugees from Congo, South Sudan and other neighbors — to me its generosity to others is a reason to be generous to Ugandans as well — for it is better off than some other African countries. If the situation is now this desperate here, imagine what it is like in Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Sudan.   The lives at stake are of children like Fred Irasubiza, a bit more than 6 months old. Fred, who weighs just 6.6 pounds, is close to death from starvation. He is a child with sticks for arms and big eyes that look at the world with pain. It’s not clear if he will celebrate his first birthday.   Fred lives in the Rwamwanja settlement, where the number of children with severe acute malnutrition has more than tripled in the last few months as aid has been reduced, said Dr. Janney Oyugi, who runs health programs in the settlement. Oyugi, who works with Medical Teams International, used to have six nutritionists on hand to help starving children like Fred; four had to be laid off.   As it happens, there’s a miraculous substance to save the lives of children like Fred. It’s a peanut paste stuffed with micronutrients in a single-serving foil packet, and it has saved millions of lives over the last two decades. Known as Plumpy’Nut or R.U.T.F., for ready-to-use therapeutic food, it costs just 50 cents a packet, and the United States has historically been a generous donor of it.   A severely malnourished child like Fred should get two packets of R.U.T.F. a day, but supplies are now so low that nurses can give him only half a packet a day. That saves 75 cents a day but may cost him his life.   We’ve figured out over the last 25 years how to save children’s lives very cheaply, with R.U.T.F., vitamin A supplementation, mosquito nets, antiretrovirals and vaccinations. (Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a global partnership, has saved an astonishing 18 million lives, but the United States cut off funding for it this year.)   What I’ve seen in my reporting this year on the Trump aid cuts — in South Sudan, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia and now Uganda — is that regardless of what the Trump administration claims, these kinds of highly effective interventions are falling apart.   This is maddening, for saving a child costs less than the $30 or so for the coffin in which he is buried.   “I’m selling more coffins than ever before,” Tonny Bauer, one of many coffin makers in Rwamwanja, told me. “It’s the busiest time in the 10 years I’ve been doing this.”   He used to sell about three coffins a week, he said, but since this spring he has been selling five or more a week. “I sold two just yesterday. But I’m not happy about it.”   Some readers may think: Of course it’s sad when a child dies, but we have our own problems. Let’s solve the challenges in our backyard before worrying about Africans.   So I’ll leave Safi Kalenga to respond. Kalenga, 39, cherished her first grader, Daniella, an 8-year-old who loved school and delighted in singing at church.   Yet in June Daniella caught typhoid and malaria, the ambulances weren’t running, medicines were out of stock — and Daniella died. “If I’d had a little more support, my child would be here right now,” Kalenga told me, speaking wistfully rather than angrily. And then she broke down. “I loved my child so much,” she said through tears.   I asked her what she would say to Americans who question why they should pay to save children like Daniella.   “It’s just a number to you,” she said. “But my child would be alive today if you could provide just a bit of medicine and food. We’re not helpless. We just need a bit of support, and for want of it we are losing our children.   “We cannot blame you,” she added. “But if only you could look at my child as you look at your own child, how would you feel?”   July 2025   Six Months into his Presidency, Donald Trump has Created a Global Humanitarian Catastrophe, writes Olivier De Schutter - United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.   As the UN’s independent expert on poverty, I am no stranger to harrowing statistics. But few numbers have shaken me like those emerging in the wake of the Trump administration’s suspension of U.S. foreign aid. According to new estimates published in The Lancet, these funding cuts could result in more than 14 million deaths by 2030, a third of them young children.   These deaths will not be the result of droughts, earthquakes, pandemics, or war. They will be the direct consequence of a single, lethal decision made by one of the wealthiest men to ever walk this planet.   On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump handed a death sentence to millions of people. Hours after taking office on January 20, 2025, he signed Executive Order 14169, ordering a pause on billions of dollars of foreign aid under the guise of a “90-day review” to ensure aid was aligned with his “America First” approach.   Six months later, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dissolved, and the entirety of America’s global humanitarian aid workforce will be terminated over the summer. The findings of the “review” have not been published.   Until the U.S. State Department releases a full assessment report, one can only conclude that the decisions to suspend foreign aid and subsequently dismantle USAID were made in an environment of zero transparency, zero accountability, and with no clear justification for a decision that will ultimately cost millions of lives.   What was billed as a temporary policy reassessment has transformed over the first half of 2025 into a full-blown humanitarian emergency. Estimates put the death toll since the aid freeze was announced at nearly 350,000 people—more than 200,000 of them children. All of these deaths were entirely preventable.   USAID and additional cuts to the UN and its agencies mean the UN faces the gravest threat to its existence in its 80-year history. UNFPA, the UN's reproductive health agency, estimates 32 million people will lose access to its services. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, warns that 12.8 million displaced people are at risk of losing life-saving health interventions. The International Organization for Migration projects 10 million migrants and internally displaced people will miss out on emergency assistance.   We are numbed by numbers. “One death is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic,” the saying goes. But these are our fellow humans—right now—suffering and dying. Children refused food. Refugees denied life-saving care after fleeing the horrors of war. Mothers bleeding to death during childbirth. All because the United States, once the backbone of the global humanitarian system, has suddenly turned off the tap.   America has abandoned the fight against poverty. But what does it mean to put America first while letting children elsewhere starve to death? The retreat may feel politically convenient, but the consequences will not stay confined to distant borders. When food systems collapse, migration spikes. When vaccines are cut off, disease spreads. When aid disappears, conflict grows. There is no version of global instability in which the U.S. remains unscathed.   No other country is stepping in to fill the void left by the United States. On the contrary, many are following suit, redirecting money once earmarked for life-saving development programmes—initiatives that ultimately build a safer, more stable world–towards defense spending.   These decisions are not just budgetary shifts; they represent a fundamental threat to multilateralism and the international rules-based order that has kept the world from the brink of world war for well over half a century.   The question now facing other world leaders is stark: will they continue to capitulate to Trump’s unilateralism, or will they stand up and defend multilateralism and international solidarity, including financial support, as our only safeguard against chaos, endless conflict, and unnecessary human suffering?   http://www.srpoverty.org/2025/07/18/common-dreams-opinion-six-months-into-his-presidency-trump-has-created-a-global-humanitarian-catastrophe/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/us-government-fuelling-global-humanitarian-catastrophe-un-experts http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01186-9/fulltext http://www.unicefusa.org/press/statement-unicef-usa-president-and-ceo-michael-j-nyenhuis-vote-approving-proposed-rescissions   Aid cuts leaving millions without support, by Jan Egeland. (Norwegian Refugee Council)   “Cuts in aid from major donors are close to crippling the humanitarian response in some of the world’s most dire displacement crises. It is hard to articulate the depth of donors’ abandonment. Compared to this point last year, just two-thirds of the humanitarian funding has been received, which itself was dramatically lower than the previous year,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of NRC. “These cuts are costing lives and must be reversed.”   As of the end of June, 6 billion US Dollars have been provided globally for the humanitarian response, down from 9 billion US Dollars at the same point in 2024. In total, 44 billion US Dollars has been requested for 2025.   Last month the United Nations announced a ‘hyper-prioritised’ plan to try and ensure the most vulnerable were able to receive support. This plan aims to reach 114 million of the 300 million people in need, with 29 billion US Dollars. This prioritisation leaves almost 200 million people who need assistance beyond the focus of the humanitarian response.   “Given the funding levels so far in 2025, even many of those targeted by the ‘hyper-prioritised’ plan are likely to be left with their needs unmet. Alongside traditional humanitarian donors, we need to see other step up to bridge this gap, including a wider group of donor countries and the private sector. Development actors, including development banks, must also step up their investments in fragile and conflict-affected countries so that displaced people and host communities can access the support they need,” said Egeland.   The consequences of aid cuts can be clearly seen across the world. In Mozambique, where Japan is so far this year’s largest humanitarian donor country, aid agencies are being forced to scale down their support due to the abrupt ending of their United States (US) funding.“I witnessed first-hand the consequences in Mozambique, where I saw water tanks that can no longer be refilled due to the overnight cancellation of US funding. Families are left without a safe supply of drinking water. This is not only devastating lives but means that good investments already made with taxpayers’ money are getting lost. Our NRC teams too have been forced to scale down their support due to this halt in funding, and are now no longer able to provide safe housing for families made homeless by the recent cyclones. This is truly gut-wrenching,” said Egeland.   In Afghanistan, the US has drastically cut its aid work. Last year it supported 45 per cent of the humanitarian response in country.   “Our teams in Afghanistan remain on the ground and committed to the communities we have been working with for over two decades, but having lost our largest donor in the country our teams are being compelled to make heartbreaking choices on who and where we can help. We are not alone in this challenge. Many humanitarian organisations are being forced to reduce their support at a time when we are seeing more and more families returning to the country in need of urgent assistance,” said Egeland.   “This picture is being repeated time and time again around the world as international solidarity is being forced to cede to other priorities. Wealthy nations should step up funding before more lives are lost. If we can afford to host World Cups and global summits, and if NATO members can afford to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP, we can afford to maintain support to the most vulnerable in their hour of greatest need.”   http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/july/aid-cuts-leaving-millions-without-support http://www.nrc.no/feature/2025/a-global-displacement-crisis-as-the-world-abandons-aid http://humanitarianaction.info/document/hyper-prioritized-global-humanitarian-overview-2025-cruel-math-aid-cuts http://humanitarianaction.info/   May 2025   The Trump administration’s abrupt suspension of U.S. foreign aid is placing millions of lives and human rights at risk across the globe.   In its research briefing Lives at Risk, Amnesty International examines how the cuts have halted critical programs across the globe, many of which provided essential health care, food security, shelter, medical services, and humanitarian support for people in extremely vulnerable situations.   The cuts have come in response to the executive order ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid’ issued by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, as well as other executive orders that targeted specific programs for cuts.   In his testimony on May 21 and 22 in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided weak or incomplete answers about the grave human rights impact of the implementation of this order contrary to the evidence gathered by Amnesty and other organizations. He even erroneously asserted there have been no deaths associated with these cuts.   Given the scale of the cuts, the number and extent of robust modeling predicting substantial mortality, and the fact that deaths have been documented already, the assertion that there has not been any death stemming from these cuts defies logic.   “This abrupt decision and chaotic implementation by the Trump administration is reckless and profoundly damaging,” said Amanda Klasing, national director of government relations and advocacy with Amnesty International USA. “The decision to cut these programs so abruptly and in this untransparent manner violates international human rights law which the U.S. is bound by and undermines decades of U.S. leadership in global humanitarian and development efforts.   While U.S. funding over the decades has had a complex relationship with human rights, the scale and suddenness of these cuts have created a life-threatening vacuum that other governments and aid organizations are not able to fill in the immediate term, violating the rights to life and health, and dignity for millions.”   The rights to life and to health are under grave threat. The U.S. government has long been a key funder of global health, investing in HIV prevention, vaccine programs, maternal and child health, humanitarian relief and more. Since President Trump’s abrupt suspension of aid across multiple countries, many vital health services have been suspended or shut down.   In Haiti, health services have lost funding including for child survivors of sexual violence. In South Africa, home to the world’s largest HIV epidemic, funding for HIV prevention and community outreach for orphans and vulnerable children, including for young survivors of rape, was terminated, leaving people without care.   In Yemen, lifesaving assistance and protection services, including malnutrition treatment to children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, safe shelters to survivors of gender-based violence, and healthcare to children suffering from cholera and other illnesses have been shut down.   In South Sudan, projects providing a range of health services including rehabilitation services for victims of armed conflict and emergency nutritional support for children, have been stopped.   Funding cuts to groups that provide essential services for migrants, particularly those in dangerous or difficult situations, including refugees, people seeking asylum and internally displaced persons, have been widespread and devastating.   In Afghanistan, 12 out of 23 community resources centers, which provided approximately 120,000 returning and internally displaced Afghans with housing, food assistance, legal assistance and referrals to healthcare providers, have been shut down. Key aid organizations have suspended health and water programs, with disproportionate impacts on women and girls.   In Costa Rica, local organizations helping asylum seekers many from neighboring Nicaragua, are forced to scale back or close food and shelter programs. In Myanmar and Thailand, U.S.-funded health and humanitarian programs supporting displaced people and refugees have been suspended or drastically reduced. Clinics in Thai border camps closed abruptly after the stop-work orders, reportedly resulting in preventable deaths.   “These abrupt cuts in funding are undermining the humanitarian support and infrastructure that enables people around the world who have been forcibly displaced to access some measure of support and protection, placing already marginalized people in acute danger.   Amnesty International urges the Trump administration to restore foreign assistance, to programs where the chaotic and abrupt cut in funding has harmed human rights and ensure that future aid is administered consistent with human rights law and standards.   Amnesty calls on Congress to continue robust funding of foreign assistance and to ensure that all U.S. foreign assistance remains consistent with human rights and humanitarian principles and is allocated according to need.   All states in a position to do so should fulfill their obligations under UN General Assembly Resolution 2626 by committing at least 0.7% of gross national income to overseas aid. As part of aiming to meet this target, donor states should increase support where possible to help fill critical funding gaps left by the abrupt U.S. aid suspensions and ensure continued progress in realizing economic, social, and cultural rights and effective humanitarian response around the world.   “It is a false choice that the U.S. government has to choose between addressing the economic needs of Americans or the rising cost of living here in the U.S. and development and humanitarian assistance abroad,” said Klasing.   “Foreign assistance represents about one percent of the U.S. budget, and the U.S. has a global responsibility and interest in providing support to the most marginalized. As one of the world’s wealthiest nations with a history of providing foreign assistance, our analysis shows that this chaotic withdrawal from multilateral cooperation is in practice cruel and endangers the lives and rights of millions of people already facing crisis. The U.S. government can – and must – do better.”   http://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/lives-at-risk-chaotic-and-abrupt-cuts-to-foreign-aid-put-millions-of-lives-at-risk/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/lives-risk-chaotic-and-abrupt-cuts-foreign-aid-put-millions-lives-risk http://www.interaction.org/statement/statement-on-the-latest-wave-of-foreign-assistance-terminations/ http://www.mercycorps.org/blog/human-cost-of-foreign-aid-cuts http://www.wfp.org/news/tens-millions-risk-extreme-hunger-and-starvation-unprecedented-funding-crisis-spirals http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-globalforeign-aid-reductions http://www.acaps.org/en/us-funding-freeze http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/biggest-ever-aid-cut-g7-members-death-sentence-millions-people-says-oxfam   May 2025   How US Aid Cuts are putting millions of Lives at Risk.   A catastrophe is unfolding in clinics, refugee camps, and conflict zones worldwide, says Farhat Mantoo; Executive Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres in South Asia.   In a remote health facility in Afghanistan, a young mother clutches her newborn, desperately waiting for the care she and her child so urgently need. But the clinic’s doors may soon close. Like hundreds of other health centers across Afghanistan, this facility is caught in the fallout of abrupt U.S. foreign aid cuts. For this mother, and millions like her in crisis-affected regions, the consequences are immediate and tragic — losing access to essential care at the very moment it is needed most.   In Afghanistan, several international NGOs have been forced to suspend critical health services, from maternal care to tuberculosis (TB) treatment, due to the abrupt termination of U.S.-funded programs. Therapeutic feeding centers in provinces like Badakhshan and Kabul have shut down, leaving malnourished children without care. Key services such as TB treatment, maternal health, mental health, mobile clinics, and vaccination programs have been suspended in multiple provinces, leading to reduced patient care, increased referrals to private (often unaffordable) facilities, and gaps in disease surveillance.   This is not an isolated story. Over the past 100 days, we have witnessed a growing, human-made disaster. The abrupt termination of U.S. foreign aid is dismantling critical health and humanitarian services across the globe, as the United States alone accounted for nearly 40 percent of global humanitarian funding.   While the scale of the U.S. cuts is shocking, it is a part of a wider shift. In the last few months, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all made significant cuts to their aid budgets.   Programs addressing diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, which have saved millions of lives, are now at risk of collapse. The resulting gaps will be felt most severely by those who already face the greatest challenges to their survival.   At Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders, we do not accept U.S. government funding, and we continue to run medical humanitarian programs in more than 70 countries. However, we cannot do this alone. We work closely with other health and humanitarian organizations to deliver vital services, and many of our activities involve programs that have been disrupted and, in some contexts, dissipated due to funding cuts.   In our operations across regions where these funding cuts are most profound, we are already witnessing the devastating effects.   The United States has historically been a key contributor to humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, accounting for 43.9 percent of all reported aid in the country, according to the United Nations. Following the recent aid suspension announced by the Trump administration, over 200 World Health Organization-supported health facilities — previously serving 1.84 million people — have either closed or halted operations. These closures have cut off access to vital services such as vaccinations, maternal care, and child health programs.   The impact is especially severe in northern, western, and northeastern Afghanistan, where more than one-third of clinics have shut down, and an additional 220 facilities are projected to close by June due to ongoing funding gaps. The crisis extends beyond the WHO. Save the Children has shuttered 18 of its 32 clinics, and the Norwegian Refugee Council has closed two community resource centers supporting displaced populations, with two more on the brink of shutting down. Action Against Hunger was forced to halt all U.S.-funded operations in March when the funding was abruptly cut.   In Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, home to one of the world’s largest refugee camps with 1 million Rohingya refugees, the United States has typically contributed nearly half of the total humanitarian aid allocated to support the refugees, amounting to approximately $300 million in 2024. Around 48 health facilities, including 11 primary care centers, have been affected by aid cuts, resulting in many refugees being left without access to essential healthcare services, according to the International Rescue Committee. As per the Inter-Sector Coordination Group, which oversees NGO activities in Cox’s Bazar, disruptions in healthcare services have impacted roughly 300,000 refugees.   MSF teams in more than 20 countries have reported concerns with disrupted or suspended sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs, which MSF relies on for referrals for medical emergencies, supplies, and technical partnerships. These include contexts with already high levels of maternal and infant mortality. In Cox’s Bazar, MSF teams report that other implementers are not able to provide SRH supplies, like emergency birth kits and contraceptives. Referrals for medical emergencies, like post-abortion care, have also been disrupted, increasing urgent needs for SRH care in the region.   In Pakistan, the pause on U.S. foreign assistance would affect 1.7 million people, including 1.2 million Afghan refugees, who would be cut off from lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services with the closure of over 60 facilities, according to the U.N.   Cuts to President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID have led to suspensions and closures of HIV programs in countries, including South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe — threatening the lives of people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. South Africa’s pioneering Treatment Action Campaign — which helped transform the country’s response to HIV/AIDS — has had to drastically reduce its community-led monitoring system that helps ensure that people stay on treatment. The monitoring is now only happening on a small scale at clinics.   The reported decision of the U.S. government to end its support for Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, which was set up 25 years ago to increase access to vaccines for the world’s poorest countries, will have devastating consequences for children across the globe. As per Gavi’s own estimates, the loss of U.S. support to Gavi is projected to deny approximately 75 million children routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children potentially dying as a result.   The United Nations has warned that these funding cuts are disrupting global childhood immunization efforts almost as severely as the COVID-19 pandemic did. Millions of children are now missing routine vaccinations, heightening the risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles, polio, and diphtheria.   For more than 50 years, we have been vaccinating children who live in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach areas, including war zones, refugee camps, and rural areas cut off from health care. This decision will risk leaving these children unprotected. While we do not accept Gavi funding and will not be directly affected by cuts to the program, more than half of the vaccines we use in our projects come from ministries of health and are procured through Gavi.   We are standing at a perilous crossroads where political agendas and funding decisions are dismantling lifelines for millions. The erosion of humanitarian aid is not a future threat — it is a present catastrophe unfolding in clinics, refugee camps, and conflict zones worldwide. We cannot allow narrow national interests and harmful narratives to dictate who lives and who is left to suffer.   The international community — governments, donors, and citizens alike — must reaffirm an unwavering commitment to humanity. This means urgently restoring and protecting funding for essential health and humanitarian services, shielding vulnerable communities from the fallout of political decisions, and upholding the principles of impartiality, dignity, and care. Silence and inaction will cost lives. Now is the time to stand in solidarity, to demand that humanitarian aid remains a beacon of hope, not a tool of politics. The world must not turn its back on those who need us most.   http://www.msf.org/after-first-100-days-us-aid-budget-cuts http://msf.org.au/event/navigating-global-pressures-humanitarian-aid-impacts-msf-and-our-response/recording 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://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-facing-extreme-hunger-crisis-put-risk-aid-cuts-clinics-close http://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2025/05/two-drops-of-life-for-me-aid-gamechanger/ http://www.one.org/us/stories/cost-of-cuts/ http://www.wvi.org/publication/world-refugee-day/report-ration-cuts-2025 http://www.justsecurity.org/114839/us-foreign-aid-cuts-world-must-respond/   * 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.
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