BRUSSELS (AN) – UNHCR is the latest U.N. agency to be forced to impose urgent spending cutbacks after nearly US$1 billion of its 2025 budget was held up due to U.S. President Donald Trump's freeze on foreign assistance.
The U.N. refugee agency's move in response to the Trump administration’s 90-day suspension and review of most foreign aid signaled a widening crisis on Tuesday among the many U.N. agencies and other international organizations that depend on U.S. funding.
The World Health Organization took similar measures due to the imminent withdrawal of its largest donor, the U.S., under one of Trump's flurry of executive orders since he regained the White House last week.
The head of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees emailed colleagues globally on Monday night saying he had instructed his regional and division directors to immediately put in place several “precautionary measures” to help manage resources.
These include a freeze on all international air travel and workshops or events, and delays in ordering supplies, except for emergencies, and non-essential procurement. Other measures include a pause on some temporary appointments and other contracts and suspension of non-essential office renovations and equipment purchases.
"We must proceed very carefully over the next few weeks to mitigate the impact of this funding uncertainty on refugees and displaced people, on our operations, and on our teams," High Commissioner Filippo Grandi told UNHCR's more than 20,000 staff.
"These steps will help us manage resources while we navigate this challenging period,” he said. “"We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust these measures if necessary.”
The U.S. is UNHCR's largest donor by far, contributing about US$2 billion of the US$4.8 billion the agency received in 2024. Trump portrays refugees as a drain on U.S. resources and security, but two-thirds of the world's refugees flee to low- and middle-income neighboring countries.
The European Union, the second-largest donor, contributed US$268 million, though the bloc's total rises to US$1 billion when taking into account its contributions from individual member nations.
The loss of UNHCR's first tranche of U.S. funding for 2025 compounds a budget shortfall that amounts to over half of the US$10.7 billion the agency had targeted to fulfil its mandate.
“Despite generous contributions exceeding US$4.8 billion, a global funding shortfall of $5.4 billion by year end meant that the most basic needs of people forced to flee were unmet or inadequately addressed, including those fleeing emergency situations,” UNHCR's 2024 Impact Report says.
UNHCR says it managed 43 emergency operations across 25 countries last year, ranging from conflict-driven displacement in Sudan, Ukraine, and Myanmar to an unprecedented surge in climate-related disasters – quadrupling from 2023 – in Afghanistan, Yemen, and across Africa.
New and protracted wars and accelerating climate change pushed the global number of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people to the highest in history last year. By the end of June, more than 122 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes, including 43.7 million refugees, according to the latest data.
More agencies expected to make cutbacks
As UNHCR follows the World Health Organization in emergency cost-cutting, concerns mount about the broadening impact of the sudden dropoff in U.S. foreign aid for international organizations.
“Any new administration is entitled to review existing foreign aid, but continuing the delivery of important assistance is critical while the review is being conducted,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch.
Trump’s suspension of foreign aid “will halt critical work, including vaccinations for thousands of children and demining programs,” HRW says, while the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is the largest bilateral global health program in history, and its suspension will affect lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people receiving HIV treatment.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration ordered a halt to U.S. supplies of life-saving HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria medicines, including critical treatments for newborns.
The World Food Program, which provides life-saving food assistance to 152 million people globally, is particularly vulnerable, despite having an American, Cindy McCain, as its executive director. The United States contributed US$4.4 billion of WFP's US$9.6 billion budget last year, creating a risk of catastrophic shortfalls should U.S. funding dry up.
Like UNHCR, WFP has projected significant funding gaps in 2025, even with U.S. support. WFP says it needs US$16.9 billion to assist people facing acute hunger as wars persist and climate disasters destroy crops in vulnerable regions. These crises often overlap with conflict, climate change, and poverty, creating compounding challenges.
Other critical U.N. agencies heavily dependent on U.S. funding include the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, which responded to emergencies in over 100 countries in 2023, delivering vaccines, nutrition programs, and cash transfers to over 100 million households. The U.S. provided US$1.4 billion of its US$8.9 billion budget.
The U.S. is also the largest donor to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, which orchestrates international emergency responses and humanitarian aid delivery, and the U.N. Population Fund, a perennial target of right-wing conservatives because of its efforts on sexual and reproductive health, maternal care, and gender-based violence prevention.
Some agencies maintain more diverse funding, like the U.N. Development Program,, which promotes sustainable development and democratic governance. The U.S. ranks seventh among its donors.
Regardless of how U.N. agencies weather the storm, the ripple effects of America's retreat from global aid will affect millions globally. The United States provided US$72 billion in foreign assistance in fiscal year 2023, accounting for 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the U.N. in 2024.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on the Trump administration to consider making “additional exemptions” to the cutoff in aid to ensure the most vulnerable communities around the world are protected, his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said. The U.N. chief “looks forward to engaging” with the Trump administration on the issue, added Dujarric, because “it is vital that we work constructively to jointly shape a strategic path forward.”
