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The US has pledged $2bn (£1.5bn) to fund United Nations (UN) humanitarian projects but warned the UN must “adapt or die”.
Jeremy Lewin, President Trump’s undersecretary for foreign aid, and U.N. emergency relief chief Tom Fletcher made the announcement in Geneva.
Against this backdrop, the United States has slashed funding for humanitarian operations, and other donors such as the United Kingdom and Germany are expected to make further cuts.
Mr Fletcher welcomed the new funds, saying they would save “millions of lives”. But $2 billion is only a fraction of traditional U.S. aid spending. In 2022, its contribution to UN humanitarian work was estimated at $17 billion (£12.6 billion).
And the funding comes with some strings attached. Although U.N. donors sometimes designate specific projects, U.N. funding prioritizes only 17 countries, including Haiti, Syria and Sudan.
Lewin said Afghanistan and Yemen would not receive any funds, adding that Washington had evidence that U.N. funds were being diverted to the Taliban in Afghanistan and that “President Trump will never tolerate a penny of taxpayer money going to terrorist groups.”
Such restrictions would be difficult for aid agencies that do not work in countries on the list. The impact of funding cuts has led to the closure of mother-and-baby clinics in Afghanistan and reduced rations for displaced people in Sudan. Globally, child mortality rates, which have been falling, are set to rise this year.
Conditions on the new U.S. funding also exclude spending on projects related to combating climate change, which Lewin said were not “life-saving” and were not in the “American interest.”
Lewin, a Trump loyalist who reportedly orchestrated the closure of USAID and the firing of thousands of staff, warned the UN must “adapt or die” and said the US “piggy bank will not be open to organizations that just want to go back to the old system”.
The United States said that funds must be concentrated and efficient, and aid projects must not be duplicated. Tom Fletcher and the entire United Nations system say they wholeheartedly support these qualities. Spending money unwisely is not in anyone’s interest, least of all the estimated 200 people in crisis.
But while the United Nations very much welcomes the new U.S. funding, big questions remain about whether the conditions surrounding it are too politicized. The basic principles of humanitarian assistance are that it is neutral, impartial and targeted to those who need it most. Eliminating specific countries or specific crises such as climate change challenges these principles.
But as it grapples with an ongoing funding crisis, and in a country deeply suspicious of donors in Washington, many at the United Nations will admit that $2 billion is better than nothing.
