Extracts from USG Fletcher’s message to staff on the OCHA reset (24 July 2025)

Dear colleagues,

Forgive the length of this message, but I’d rather give you too much than too little. I hope you all feel that you have facts, frankness and fairness. As leaders, we have to take tough decisions. I’m determined that we do so on the basis of consultation. Robust data. And with accountability to you all.

I am also determined that we are as open as we can be. We have now moved from a period of consultation to one of decisions, and now to one of delivery.

I want to give you more detail on the context and how we have managed the process.

But before that, let me share the numbers.

This is the hard part. These are tough numbers, but I am confident that with these changes, we will be more financially sustainable. So, the headlines:

As I have mentioned, due to the drastic funding cuts, the primary driver of our decisions is the programmatic review – the decisions are based first and foremost on strategic prioritization.

OCHA currently has a workforce of 2,650 positions in over 60 countries. The funding shortfall means we are looking to regroup to smaller organization in fewer locations, like others in our sector.
We will reduce by around 675 positions: over 550 positions of 2,100 in country and regional offices and more than 125 positions of 550 in Headquarters. This represents approximately a 25 per cent reduction in our workforce.
A higher proportion of our international workforce will be reduced and a lower proportion of our national staff workforce. The cuts represent roughly a 28 per cent reduction in our international positions and 25 per cent reduction in local positions around the world.
This affects all categories and levels of staff globally, with a large percentage of senior positions reduced. We will become a less top-heavy organization.
These reductions are not all taking place immediately; the draw-down will occur in a phased manner. Some will start in the coming months, some later this year, and some into next year, reflecting a balance between our operational needs, and our commitment to honour existing contracts with staff.
A large number of abolished posts – 35 per cent are vacant, while 65 per cent are encumbered. Among the encumbered positions there are staff with temporary, fixed-term limited, fixed-term and continuing appointments. The decisions on positions are based on programmatic reasons and not contract types. Next, we will be doing a detailed, holistic review of the positions that will exist in future and determine the impacts on staff – the implementation phase will take into account staff member’s contract in line with the organization’s contractual framework.
As a result of these reductions, we will save around $50 million in 2025 and $100 million in 2026. Our 2025 revised budget will stand at around $381 million, reflecting an 11.2 per cent decrease from the last approved budget of $429.2 million, and for 2026 our budget will be around $327.6 million, marking a 23.7 per cent reduction from the 2025 – a reduction of $101.6 million.

Let me now rewind and give you the context before returning to the detail.

This is a tough time to be a humanitarian. The context is the toughest it has ever been for our mission as OCHA and the system we lead. Thank you for everything you are doing and that we stand for.

The humanitarian community was already underfunded, overstretched and under attack. For months now, we have continued to face a sustained, deliberate attack on our values and our funding. I am as angry as you about this. The result is that for OCHA, this is the worst financial crisis we have ever faced, with devastating consequences for the people we serve and for all of us who serve them. The future of the humanitarian sector, of the UN and of multilateralism, of our organization is at stake.

Of course, as we all know, our cuts are driven by funding cuts, and not by a reduction of needs. On the contrary, as reflected in our 2025 Global Humanitarian Needs Overview, humanitarian needs are on the rise, driven by conflicts, climate crises, disease and the lack of respect of international humanitarian law. Now, more than ever, our coordination of the sector is needed.

I think of our team in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory who are facing daily situations that no one should ever have to face. Of our colleagues in Afghanistan who work with people that are facing death of their children because clinics have been closed due to funding cuts. Of our colleagues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who were already coordinating an underfunded and neglected humanitarian response, and this was before they lost over 70% of the little funding they had. Of our overstretched teams already working double or triple shifts, be it in Caracas, Geneva, Istanbul or Ouagadougou.

You have all been navigating through this, while not knowing what this may mean for the millions of people we work for every day and not knowing what this may mean for you and your families. This is not just a job, it is a vocation. I’ve learnt that from you.

So, some hard facts on OCHA’s finances.

We were already a small and efficient organization. The 2025 initial approved budget for OCHA totalled $429 million. We are currently facing a reduction in voluntary contributions of at least $75 million. We do not know what is coming in the pipeline, but we should not kid ourselves – and I say that having been to over 20 capitals of potential funders. This is not sustainable, and our ability to keep operations running is entirely dependent on reserves. We also reduced our Regular Budget by 15-20 per cent for 2026, as requested by the Secretary-General.

Since February, we instituted immediate mitigation measures, including recruitment freezes, travel restrictions and reduced spending. Many of these have made our jobs harder, but allowed us to continue while the prioritization was ongoing. Since these were implemented, with thanks to you all, we have reduced corporate spending by over $12 million and saved an additional $4 million through recruitment freezes and mitigation measures. We have also conducted two calls for agreed termination packages which are being approved and reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

As you heard from the Executive Office, we hope that with these measures and careful prioritization, we will be able to shape ourselves into the OCHA of the future over time, without terminating or cutting contracts short. This of course does not mean that we have not had to say goodbye to colleagues we were not able to or will not be able to extend.

So, how do we set the right programmatic structure for these decisions?

There are different ways to approach prioritization exercises. We have opted to ensure that OCHA, rather than external voices or consulting companies, are at the heart of our approach, and that the consultation is as inclusive as it can be. No one knows our work better than we do.

Our prioritization emerges from the Humanitarian Reset, which we are leading across the humanitarian community.

In February and then again in June, I convened the heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to discuss how we regroup and renew in the new context. We agreed to remain calm, brave, principled and united. To win afresh the argument for international solidarity. To draw confidence from the extraordinary progress made by humanitarians over decades. That our mission is right, and our allies are still out there. But we need to be lighter, faster, reduce duplication and be less bureaucratic. We need to devolve power to local partners and empower our Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs). We agreed and delivered on a ten-point plan to adapt our system, leading to a second phase of the reset, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet, please read my statements following these meetings.

Among our key actions, two critical prioritization exercises took place supported by OCHA. Each HC-led consultations on the impact on people of the funding crisis and the lifesaving activities they would prioritize. We prioritised 20 country plans, with HCs revising strategies for new reality. Building on the country-level submissions, the Emergency Directors Group led a global prioritization exercise, leading to recommendations on a reduction in programming and presence. Given funding realities and high levels of needs, the goal was to ensure the best possible crisis response within available resources.

We launched a hyper-prioritised plan of the annual Global Humanitarian Overview to reach 114 million people with lifesaving support, at a cost of 1 per cent of what the world spent last year on defence, supported by simplified programming cycle/appeals.
We strengthened humanitarian leadership, with empowered HCs and Humanitarian Country Teams (HCTs) to operate as strategic, unified crisis platforms, and with UN and NGO representatives accountable to affected communities and HCs, alongside their own organizations.
We agreed to devolve more power, funding and accountability to local partners who are bearing the brunt of cuts, with decision-making closer to the people we serve. HCTs have allocated 52 per cent of pooled funding to local actors since February.
We have also asked donors to meaningfully increase funding to country pooled funds, to provide significantly more funding to local actors/frontline responders. While the IASC has not agreed to a specific target for pooled funding, my aspiration as Emergency Relief Coordinator is to reach 50 per cent, with 70 per cent of that for local actors.
We have reviewed Country/Regional Funds and the CERF.
We have established an IASC comms situation room to draw together our best communicators across the sector to demonstrate the value of what we do; make the case to sceptical audiences; show how we are changing; expand the humanitarian coalition; and push proactive and collective messaging and counter disinformation.
Finally, we have implemented efficiencies, including in response to the Egeland/Msuya report. We have cut back in person high-level meetings and events; and reduced the number of clusters from 15 to 8, with HCTs encouraged to adapt coordination to local needs and capacities, and are reviewing integration between cluster and refugee coordination models, working towards one model.

That’s the wider framing. Now, to OCHA, and how we adapt to meet the moment.

We started this process in March. It has been hard. It has taken a toll on everyone. We work to protect the mission – but we are also all human. It is not easy to regroup, to reduce and reconfigure our operational goals to match our resources, and to re-prioritize our budget given the funding shortfall.

This exercise was based on three principles. First, the core mission of saving lives. Secondly, the work we have already done to identify how to be more efficient, including investing in humanitarian leadership, crisis readiness, and outstanding, focused coordination of the humanitarian community. Thirdly, our values, and the wider work we are doing to build a genuinely open and inclusive culture. Central to everything we do are our people: as I will keep saying, building the right organizational culture is as important as defining the savings we will make. That is the fairness part.

Your leadership teams, in Country and Regional Offices and in Headquarters, spent countless hours on these reviews. Conversations were difficult and stressful, but they have also shown how utterly committed you are to our work. My time with OCHA has also convinced me that if any group of people can come out of this, it is you. We will come together to deliver in difficult circumstances and take tough decisions.

As you heard, this was not a budget exercise where OCHA was cut across equally. Some parts shrank significantly, others much less so. Other parts were consolidated throughout to find synergies and savings.

So, what is the new OCHA going to look like?

Let me begin with our Headquarters.

We will refocus our work in HQ around three strategic priorities: the best possible crisis response support, humanitarian sector renewal, and humanitarian leadership, with all three priorities underpinned by a strong financing, communication and partnerships division. Our information management work will be embedded throughout all our work.

Key points:

The Operations and Advocacy Division and the Response Support Branch will merge to create the new Crisis Response Division.
Our Coordination Division will become the Humanitarian Sector Division.
Our third division, Financing and Partnerships Division, will change to the Financing and Outreach Division

I would also like to mention that the decision to close The Hague as a duty station for OCHA and consolidate to other HQ locations is postponed and will be reviewed in December 2026.

Now to our Country and Regional Offices, which represent the vast majority of our work.

This exercise was carried out from the bottom-up, led by our offices, with consultations happening across many months with colleagues at country, regional and Headquarters, and with our partners. It incorporates the prioritization exercises undertaken earlier this year by HCs and HCTs, the Emergency Directors Group and the Humanitarian Reset.

As you know, this process is not new – as an agile OCHA, we adjust our operations, scaling up and down as needed, based on changing needs and evolving global situations. This is the life cycle of operations. Our goal is to transition out of crises where our role, and humanitarian needs, have changed. The gradual scale-down and phase-out in Gaziantep by end 2025, in conjunction with the broader transition of the whole-of-Syria humanitarian architecture into a Damascus-based response, is a key example of this. What is different this year is that, due to the financial situation, these shifts will be fast-tracked in OCHA, as they are also being done by our agency and NGO partners.

We have sought to standardize office structures and functions to the extent possible across our operations.
In every office, we are focusing on strengthening field support, clarifying roles, and reducing duplication to enable faster and more coordinated responses.
We know these changes will have widespread impacts across our operations, and we will adapt and adjust as we move forward.
During the remainder of 2025 and for 2026, we are sustaining capacity in Haiti, OPT, Sudan and Syria. This takes into consideration the needs and complexity of these crises and operational requirements.
We will adjust our presence in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, the Pacific, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen, and across all five regional offices and our African Union and ASEAN Offices.
We are winding down our presence in Cameroon, Colombia, Eritrea, Gaziantep, Nigeria and Pakistan, as announced in April.
We are also reducing our Humanitarian Advisory Teams from the current 20 to 10 in 2026, under the steer of our regional offices.
We have decided to pause the decision to merge Public Information and Information Management Units across our offices. This is feedback from staff and managers.

After hard facts, a human point on how we handle this next phase.

It is understandable that we feel daunted and anxious. Please support colleagues and friends as we go through these challenging times. I count on all of you to help us continue to adapt to ensure that OCHA remains the energetic standard bearer of humanitarian action worldwide. And let’s focus our collective energy – fearlessly and proudly – on saving lives. Let’s be an organization that argues about policy, not personalities.

We have exceptional talent: experienced, creative, committed, diverse. We have a strong sense of purpose, the courage to persevere in front of daunting odds, and people who are willing to work harder than anyone because we believe in what we do. I want us to model the behaviours we need for the challenges ahead: an energy for what we do; trust; humility towards each other, those we serve and the challenges we face; genuine teamwork; agility. We must show, not tell, how we are changing: we are not going to define how we evolve in a soundbite and then fail to match it with action. I want all of you to feel liberated to do your jobs, rewarded for delivering, able to learn, grow, innovate and speak truth to power, including in decision making. ERCs come and go: this is your organization; this is our organization.

Thank you for your resilience, calm and dedication, despite this grim reality.

Yours,
Tom