“This is not a drill” – Aid cuts risk costing lives
Global crises are escalating, but humanitarian funding is disappearing. More than 300 million people require life-saving support, just as funding is being slashed. The consequences are proving deadly.
“This is not a drill right now,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a recent statement. “Many will die because that aid is drying up.”
#Funding cuts: Lives at stake
Aid cuts are not abstract; they cost lives. Those who depend on aid – people displaced by war, affected by drought or surviving conflict – are bearing the brunt:
- In Afghanistan, 9 million people risk going without healthcare.
- In Ukraine, winter cash assistance was suspended.
- In Yemen, safe spaces for women and girls are closing.
- And in Burkina Faso, 300,000 people in a single town may soon lose access to clean water.
Behind each statistic is a family without food, a child without medicine, a mother without protection.
A shock to the system
Funding cuts, including from major donors, are already affecting humanitarian operations globally – dealing a seismic shock to the system.
Critical services worldwide are shutting down: health clinics have closed their doors, nutrition programmes have ended, and water supplies are running dry. Humanitarian agencies are laying off staff, closing offices and halting essential services. Local organizations – who lead 80 per cent of crisis response – are hardest hit, with many unable to pay staff or deliver aid.
More than 60 per cent of humanitarian teams globally report significant losses in operational capacity, severely restricting their ability to deliver, and forcing impossible choices about who receives aid and who does not.
“We cannot continue to do it all,” said Fletcher in a statement to humanitarian leaders. “With resources slashed, our defining mission must be saving lives.”
Resetting the humanitarian system
Faced with these grim realities, the humanitarian sector is adapting. A reset, led by OCHA in consultation with the wider humanitarian leadership, is underway to make the sector faster, more efficient and more accountable.
“We’ll have to make a calculated regrouping,” Fletcher told the media recently. “It’s not about defending programmes or institutions or spreadsheets, but defending the people we serve.”
The humanitarian system is taking action on key reforms, including:
- Prioritizing life-saving assistance
- Empowering local responders with more direct funding
- Expanding cash-based aid
- Pooling logistics, data and services to cut duplication
- Reducing bureaucracy
A deeper crisis: Aid workers under attack
In addition to being overstretched and underfunded, the humanitarian system is also under attack. Respect for international humanitarian law is eroding, putting civilians and aid workers increasingly at risk. Across conflict zones – from Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine – humanitarian access is frequently blocked, and aid workers are deliberately targeted.
In 2024, a record 384 humanitarian workers were killed across 20 countries. Gaza alone has seen more than 400 humanitarian workers killed since October 2023. In Sudan, more than 90 aid workers have been killed since April 2023. Attacks on clearly marked humanitarian convoys and facilities are now alarmingly common.
"Being shot at is not part of our job," said Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the UN Security Council. “Yet humanitarian workers face attacks, kidnappings, arbitrary detentions and smear campaigns simply for delivering aid. We must end the impunity that allows these violations to persist.”
Humanitarian aid: A global investment
Humanitarian aid saves lives, protects dignity and fosters stability. It extends beyond immediate crisis relief to prevent conflict and famine, contain disease outbreaks, reduce forced displacement, and create conditions for peace, recovery and prosperity.
Protecting civilians and providing adequate humanitarian support is a moral imperative that requires immediate international action.
But investing in humanitarian aid isn’t just a moral choice; it's a global investment in survival, resilience, peace and stability. Your support today matters.